Power Rangers: Supernova Squadron
by Sir Perfluous
Summary: The battle over planet Earth continues to rage as the Nova Rangers hold the line against the alien invasion. As the war continues to escalate, the Rangers will need to rely on new weapons, allies, and each other for any hope of survival. [Nova Squadron-Season 2]
1. Prologue

_**Listen up troops! This starts the second half of this series! The author wanted to get this prologue out to set the stage for events to come. If you're reading this without having finished the first half, then what are you standing around waiting for soldier? Get to it!**_

 _ **Oh yeah, and he doesn't own Power Rangers either.**_

* * *

The familiar sound of chatter and busy base personnel filled the air as Corporal Jake Massey made his way through the large atrium of Atlantis Base's administrative center. Although the area served as the base's home for offices and work rooms, it also served as a hub linking personnel housing, training facilities, rec areas, and the central Command Tower as well. Although Jake had been a Nova Ranger for less than a year, he had started growing accustomed to the sights and sounds of the bustling city base. The large dome of glass panes over the atrium showed the gray light of the late January skies above. They looked to be threatening a snow shower and it made the Silver Ranger glad that he was still indoors doing administrative tasks today.

He made his way toward the records office to drop off some paperwork and though he had been enjoying the relative peace, he wondered just how long it would take for cabin fever to set in. With the winter holidays having passed several weeks ago, now was the time of year when winter doldrums could set in. He debated for a moment if he'd welcome a Xeno attack or if he'd even be content with practicing some combat training maneuvers out in the cold. As he passed though the crowded atrium of soldiers and scientists, he came across his squad's two senior officers.

Captain Martin Sterling and Lieutenant Erik Dobermann Jr. walked together and chatted while holding datapads in their hands. Erik smiled while musing aloud, "Captain, it's really too bad you were late to the mess hall for dinner last night. Staff Sergeant Braun was trying her best to eat with chopsticks again."

"Ah, so it was dinner and a show then?" Martin laughed before he looked over and caught sight of Jake, "Corporal! Good morning to you."

Jake walked over and gave a casual salute, "Captain. Lieutenant. Did your staff meetings get out early today?"

"Actually they were cancelled," Erik said tucking his datapad under his arm, "Instead, Martin and I went to sit in and watch some new enlisted troops get oriented."

"And by oriented, you mean watching their new sergeants drill them and scream at them the whole time?" Jake sighed. He had come from the lower ranks of the enlisted troops, so he knew exactly what all the code words for hazing were.

The two officers exchanged a knowing smile before their morphers chimed. Martin raised his first and replied, "Go ahead."

Lucy's voice replied on the other end, "Martin, is your schedule clear right now?"

"Sure. What's the problem Luce?"

"No problem," she said, "In fact, I'd like you to gather the other Rangers right now. Julian and I have got some things here that you might be interested in seeing."

The three male Rangers in the atrium exchanged a curious look and shrugged, "We'll be there shortly."

* * *

After collecting Bharata and the two girls, the six Nova Rangers made their way to the R&D lab where their two most trusted engineers were waiting. Dr. Lucy Beckett stood at a lab table with her younger lab assistant, Julian Wilson. She adjusted her lab coat over her dressy dark skirt and white blouse while Julian took her datapad and set it down on the table. As the Rangers gathered around, Lucy gave a proud smile and cleared her throat, "Rangers, thanks for coming. I wanted to be the first to tell you that you'll be in for a real treat today."

Erin glanced curiously toward several large cases sitting on the tables, "I'm guessing you've been cooking up something fun in the lab these past few weeks?"

Lucy grinned and adjusted her glasses before giving Julian a nod to display the first item, "Cooking is one way to put it. Based on all the Adventi data that Erin had been able to recover and decode, we've been able to make some exciting breakthroughs in our technology. This first item is a food and nutrient synthesizer."

Everyone watched as Julian displayed a nondescript hollow box-like object with a few panels and buttons.

"This little device allows matter to be reconfigured into edible food items. We've only been able to program a few simple things but the downside is the synthesizer still uses a lot of power to operate. It's no solution to world hunger, but it's a start."

"That's amazing Doc," Erik grinned as he came over to examine the appliance, "May I?"

"What'll it be Lieutenant?" Julian asked as he manned the controls.

Erik gave a sidelong look toward Martin, "How about something for the Captain? Tea. Earl Gray. Hot."

"Very funny Dobermann," Martin replied as a cup of hot steaming tea materialized.

Julian shrugged and handed the tea off, "Sorry Erik. All we can do is simple black tea right now."

Lucy waved the tea aside and led the Rangers to her next station, with holographic displays showing several animated panels. "Next up is something a little more practical to the war effort. The data we've gone over has shown us ways to improve the capabilities of our military forces. All of them are going through trial phases right now, but it looks like we have ways to greatly improve the shielding of our ships and fighter planes. We've also started developing better weapons for our space fleet using ion beam cannons instead of projectile rail guns. The most exciting though is a potential key to warp drive technology."

"Hold on a second... warp drive?" Ella asked incredulously, "Like bending space time for faster than light travel? They said those were just far fetched theories in my Air Force Physics classes."

Lucy smiled and pointed to the display of some engine schematics, "Maybe not so far fetched anymore. We might be able to learn how the Adventi traveled across the stars and go exploring ourselves. My guess is, if the war ends tomorrow and the world puts a collaborative effort together, we may well figure out how to create a warp engine within our lifetime. Maybe even in the next ten years."

"That's all great Dr. Beckett, but is there anything that can help our team directly? Like in the here and now?" Jake asked.

"I'm glad you asked Corporal," Lucy grinned as she led them to her last station. On the table were two large cases. Julian opened one and produced some new hardware. He started with a sleek futuristic looking pistol which had a chrome finish and gave off a light blue light from a glowing attachment.

"Rangers, these are your new and improved Nebula Pistols. Adventi weapons utilized superheated hydrogen gas to make extremely powerful projectile plasma weapons. Not only will they be much stronger than your old blasters, but they should be able to punch through almost any enemy armor you might come across. Just be careful when you do an overcharge shot. Plasma weapons are more prone to overheating and you might need to swap out a new cartridge."

Julian next produced an object resembling their Nova Strikers and activated it creating a pure blade of colored plasma energy. "Rangers, we've also upgraded your vibroblades into beam swords which have increased cutting power and energy output.

"Very nice!" Erik cheered, "They've basically made us lightsabers."

Lucy adjusted her labcoat with a sigh and shrugged, "I suppose that's one way of putting it. In addition to those upgrades, Julian and I have been working on building additional battle gear which might be useful to each of your individual talents."

"Can we see them?" Erin asked hopefully but Julian shook his head.

"Sorry. Not yet. That gear is still in development and only half assembled. Your new blasters and blades are also in the final phases of testing too so just be a little more patient. Dr. Beckett, should we tell the Rangers about the other big project we're working on?"

Lucy bit her lip thoughtfully and drummed her fingers on the table. After a pause, she opened the last case to reveal six small diodes which resembled multicolored crystals. "Rangers, these diodes were created with a fusion of new Adventi technology and special artificial crystals. In time, we're hoping to install these into your morphers to enhance your Ranger abilities even further... to make you stronger, faster, and even more resistant to enemy attacks."

"So... like a super-powered mode?" Bharata asked eagerly, "I like the sound of that."

"It's going to take just a little more time, but we're getting there," she nodded.

The team conference was immediately interrupted as a viewscreen flicked on and the face of General Caldwell appeared, "Ah, Dr. Beckett. I apologize for interrupting. I was hoping I could get a hold of the Rangers once you were finished?"

"Of course General. We were just finishing up here," she answered while closing the case. "Is it something urgent? I can send them now."

He shook his head, "It's all right. I do have some important things to tell them, but it's not a red alert situation either."

"We're on our way General," Martin replied as he gathered his team and headed out the door. Before he exited, he stopped and gave a grateful smile, "Lucy? Julian? Thank you again and keep up the good work. You'll keep us posted on the new arsenal?"

Julian gave a respectful salute while Lucy nodded with a warm smile, "Of course Captain. See you later."

* * *

Some time later, the six Nova Rangers made their way to the top floor of the base's central Command Tower. Once there, they reconvened in the large familiar briefing room of the general which offered a panoramic view of the city base and the surrounding waters of the Atlantic Ocean. The six greeted Caldwell with a respectful salute and took their seats as he moved to the head of the table. "Rangers, I assume Dr. Beckett has already filled you in about all the progress made in our weapons development. I called you here today to announce some more change and progress. He took several small boxes from his spot at the table and walked around the room passing them out to the Rangers.

"I'm happy to announce that you will be receiving promotions for your heroism and courage over this past year, and during your raid on the enemy base on the moon. Without it, your team would be one member short and these technological breakthroughs would not be possible."

The old weathered general gave a kind nod toward Jake as the Silver Ranger held up a new rank patch for his uniform, a few sergeant stripes. "Corporal, although you haven't served long enough to qualify for a commission, I still want to recognize your contribution and make you a proper NCO."

He then looked to Bharata and the girls before gesturing them to open their boxes. Inside, each found a pair of single silver bars, "Timothy, Reilly, and Catalano? You three are being elevated to the rank of First Lieutenant a little bit early. I hope you don't mind."

Ella grinned in joy and admired the new insignia, "Not at all sir! Thank you! Now we can finally get rid of those old butter bars."

Erik was the next to open his little box and blinked in surprise while removing a new silver pin in the shape of a double bar. He looked toward the general but was at a complete loss for words. Caldwell gently raised his hand to calm him, "Yes Erik. Your eyes aren't playing tricks on you. You've been doing good work and I've seen the way you've handled the squad in emergencies. Congratulations Captain Dobermann."

Martin gave his friend an approving nod from across the table before Caldwell glanced to the Red Ranger. He gave Martin an apologetic expression and passed a few papers over. "I'm sorry Martin. If it were up to me, I would promote you too but the Powers that Be decided it was best that you maintain your current rank. They believe you're still a bit too young to be a Major and would prefer that you still be able to lead field operations rather than sit behind a desk."

"That's okay General. I understand," Martin answered with a slight hint of disappointment.

Caldwell gestured to the papers, "In lieu of that, I've recommended you for a few awards as well as a generous pay raise."

Erik gave Martin a friendly nudge and looked to the other Rangers, "All right, our acting-Major is still buying us drinks tonight."

A chorus of laughter filled the air as Martin gave a sigh and joined in with a chuckle of his own. When the merriment died down, he looked to Caldwell who remained at the head of the table with an unusual expression. After a long pause, he asked hesitantly, "General? Is something wrong?"

Caldwell forced a weak smile and gave a sigh before straightening his posture. "Rangers, there's one more major change I have to bring to your attention today."

He turned and walked over toward the large windows casting a wistful look out over the ocean, "Effective as of 1200 hours tomorrow, I will no longer be the commander of Atlantis Base."

A stunned silence fell over the table before Caldwell gestured toward the door. They swished open and a dark haired woman in a business suit entered flanked by two unfamiliar UNAF colonels. The woman looked to be in her late thirties and while she still looked to be attractive and well coifed, she still had a chilly stilted air about her. She carried a professional business binder tucked under her arm and the badge that she wore from her blazer had the markings of the United Nations Council.

Caldwell cleared his throat, "Rangers, this is Ms. Lauren Pruitt from the International Oversight Committee. She's been assigned by the UN Council to take charge here for the time being."

Ms. Pruitt took a place at the head of the table and gave a stiff nod, "Thank you General. Rangers, I've heard a lot about your exploits and have been reading the intelligence reports. I look forward to working with you and making Atlantis Base run more efficiently."

The Rangers stared at her in incredulous silence for a moment before Martin turned to Caldwell, "General, with respect… what the hell is going on here?"

Ms. Pruitt cleared her throat and narrowed her eyes making her resemble a bird of prey. "The UN Council decided to relieve General Caldwell of his command here after he authorized that little stunt on the moon and the loss of a valuable alien prisoner who was in your custody."

"That's not fair at all," Erin piped up heatedly, "If Caldwell didn't, I wouldn't be here right now! Besides, we've gained a treasure trove of new technology and planted a spy within the enemy ranks."

"Are you really certain your friend Taldyr wouldn't turn sides again?" Pruitt asked levelly, I actually find it a bit disturbing that you made efforts to actually befriend that thing 2nd Lt. Reilly."

"First Lieutenant actually," Erin sniped back with defiance.

Pruitt regarded her silently for a moment before waving it off with a dismissive sniff, "The fact of the matter is, we've lost a valuable resource and are now at risk from that Xeno sharing his knowledge of Atlantis Base with his superiors. If you want to talk cost-benefit, this new technology you mentioned is still being tested. In the mean time, there were still other costs of launching that shuttle and conducting the logistics of that raid."

Martin ignored her and continued to look at an apologetic Caldwell, "Sir, I don't agree with this at all. At this stage in the campaign, we can't afford to lose you now. What if the Xenos launch another major attack? For God's sake, Ms. Pruitt is a civilian! I have serious doubts that some bean-counting bureaucrat in a suit will know how to handle herself in a battle situation."

Ms. Pruitt turned her imperious glare on Martin, "Captain Sterling, I may not be as well versed in the art of warfare as you are but I have my two trusted military advisors here. Keep in mind they have greater rank and more experience than you as well. Caldwell may have given you Rangers a wide degree of latitude around here, but I intend to run a much tighter ship."

He started to protest but she raised a hand and silenced him with a stern look, "I will only warn you once Captain. You'd do well to abide by the decision of the Council and show proper respect to me and my advisors."

The Red Ranger stared her down with his own icy glare of defiance before giving a limp salute, "We salute the rank. Not the person. Will that be all?"

Pruitt watched patiently as the other Rangers rose and gave half hearted salutes in reply.

"Dismissed."

* * *

Meanwhile, on the dark side of the moon, the field commander of the Xeno Machina invaders made his way into the depths of the grounded mothership, which served as the alien's home base. The cybernetically enhanced warrior known as Hellspont passed the final checkpoints before being allowed into the heart of the ship where the aliens' machine Overlord named Phaeton resided. Hellspont stopped before the massive humanoid form of the Overlord that had been fused to the core of the ship. As he gave a slight bow of the head, he prompted his companion to do the same. The clone soldier Taldyr gaped in awe of the monstrous mechanical Overlord for a moment before following suit.

The two visitors were greeted by their master's booming voice. "It has been close to one earth year that we have languished here Warmaster. What is the status of my ship?"

Hellspont trembled slightly before answering, "We are repairing the damage done from the recent Terran raid. We estimate it will still be a few months before we can get the mothership to fly again."

"Allowing such a raid will not happen again," the Overlord responded, "You have also failed to penetrate the Terrans' defenses and weaken them in any significant way."

"Forgive me," Hellspont answered, "The humans… they have been resisting us with Adventi based weaponry and their orbital defense guns pose too great a risk for a direct assault. It would be far too costly, even for us."

"I will not let these human worms take the technology of our cousins and become like them. The Adventi were weak and cowardly for turning their backs on our kind. We will eradicate any trace of their technology and subjugate any humans who remain. If you and your forces cannot deal with the humans, then I will."

The Warmaster and Taldyr watched in awe as a nearby chamber opened and a Xeno warrior emerged amid a cloud of steam. The warrior had a powerful humanoid build and its body armor was covered in lenses and projector nodes. It had a blank featureless face and stood at eerie silent attention.

"What is it?" Taldyr asked in an unusually timid voice. He had not expected this development and wondered how he would safely get into contact with the Rangers to warn them.

"This is one of the warriors I have created myself for special purposes," the Overlord answered, "This is an Omega Trooper named Refractor."

Hellspont eyed the strange warrior with a mix of curiosity and skepticism, "And just what is this Omega Trooper supposed to do?"

"Refractor has an incredible ability to scan and adapt its defenses to the weapon systems of an enemy and make itself near impervious," the Overlord answered, "Once it renders the weapons of the Rangers powerless, it will finish them off for good."

With that, the Omega Trooper began marching forward toward the door leading out of the Overlord's chambers, "Go now. Destroy the Rangers. Once they are gone, we will destroy the rest of planet Earth too."


	2. Desperate Times

**Mission 17: Part 1**

The sharp cracks of gunfire echoed in the pistol range as Martin lowered the handgun and removed an empty ammo clip. Despite the fact the UNAF had largely transitioned over to using laser weapons for their greater accuracy and efficiency, many soldiers like him still found it helpful to practice marksmanship with the old conventional firearms too. After brushing aside a few empty shell casings, he made his way to the weapons locker where the base's Armory Officer dutifully sat at his post. The younger Lieutenant sat up a little straighter as Martin neared. "Everything okay sir?"

"Everything's fine Lieutenant. Can I get another box of ammo?"

The Lieutenant shook his head, "I'm sorry Captain. I can't give you any more for this training session… new policy by the base administration."

The Red Ranger blinked in surprise, "You're kidding me. We never had ammunition rations before."

The Armory Officer nodded sympathetically, "Ms. Pruitt seemed to think it would be a good cost cutting measure… something about not wasting taxpayer money."

"Makes me wish I had one more bullet left. I think I know where I'd put it," Martin grumbled as he checked the pistol back in to the Armory Officer. "Thank you Lieutenant."

Upon leaving the Armory's target range and heading back toward the central atrium, the Red Ranger stopped in surprise as he was mobbed by his teammates. All of them looked either distressed, angry, or a little bit of both. Ella was the first one to jump him and pull on his sleeve, "Martin! We have a problem. Did you know that whenever we officers have to leave post for the West End, we need to fill out some forms and get another round of clearance from base security?"

"Let me guess, the new administration's policy?"

The Pink Ranger indignantly walked with him and kept her grip on his arm, "Yes! We're getting interrogated for taking a shopping trip... off duty, on our own time! It's like they don't trust us and think we that we all just play around while on duty!"

"Sir, I've got another issue too," Erik added as he flanked Martin's other side and waved a datapad, "Have you seen this new memo on changes to be made when drafting our reports? It's going to double our workload. We might not have time to train or fight Xenos if we're buried in paperwork."

Julian walked closely with their pack and waited patiently until Erik was done speaking, "Oh, Captain Sterling? Sorry to bother you too, but Dr. Beckett wanted me to ask if you could request Ms. Pruitt ease up on some of the regulations put on the base's Science Department. She's placing energy quotas on us and only allowing us to experiment with certain things at certain times… for efficiency reasons."

"Really? Energy saving measures too?" Erin mumbled, "The base is powered by a big clean nuclear reactor. She's quibbling over saving a few megawatts?"

As the mob reached the atrium, Martin was stopped as Bharata waited to join them. The Green Ranger had a sour look on his face and his hands at his hips, "Captain, I need your help. I need to report a disaster."

Martin sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. With all his friends' complaints, he felt a massive headache coming on. "What's wrong Bara? Something the administration did?"

Bharata nodded, "You've got that right sir. The mess hall has just removed the green Jello off the dessert menu."

"Green Jello?"

"Yes sir," Bharata grumbled, "I know Lime isn't a very popular flavor here and not that many people get it during meals either... but was it really necessary? I can take a lot of the new headaches here but this is where I draw the line. No respect for Green!"

"I'll see what I can do Bara," Martin sighed before turning to address his upset comrades, "Everyone, I'm not too thrilled with all the recent changes either, and I'd love to help you but there's only so much I can do. I'm still just a junior officer here and a lot of this administrative stuff is out of my hands."

"I'll bet he could get the green Jello back if they promoted him to Major," Erin said in a half joking aside to the others.

"Listen, can we all just focus here and forget about the Jello for a minute?" the Red Ranger groaned before the Rangers' morphers sounded, "Oh great. More problems?"

"Rangers? We have a problem," came the voice of Ms. Pruitt on the other end. "Please report to the Command Tower immediately."

With that, Julian turned and headed back to the lab while the other Rangers hurried to make their way back to Ops.

* * *

A short while later, the team gathered around the familiar briefing table with an unfamiliar figure running the meeting. Ms. Pruitt checked her notes on the open binder in front of her while one of her military advisors worked a holographic display. "Everyone, we've picked up some recent alien activity in South America. Long range scans suggest a small Xeno strike force has landed in the Patagonia region of Argentina. That is where you will be deployed to intercept them."

"Patagonia?" Jake asked with raised eyebrows, "What on earth are the Xenos doing there? That's not a heavily populated area."

"True," Pruitt said as she surveyed the table, "But it's still strategically significant. The UNAF has a large secret science facility there and it's powered by a hydroelectric dam. We have reason to believe those Xenos will be striking at either of those targets."

"Do we have any idea which one is the objective?" Bharata asked.

She shook her head, "No. that's why we're sending you. Your first task is to locate the new enemy. After that, we'll figure out what to do."

She handed Martin a datapad with written orders and the mission parameters before he gave a nod and quickly rose. "All right then, let's saddle up."

"You heard the Captain, let's get a move on," Erik added spurring the rest of the team to stand and quickly follow out the door. They could only hope that their new boss would be able to coordinate a battle as well as she could impose new rules and regulations.

* * *

When the light of the transport beam faded, the six Nova Rangers found themselves on a tundra filled with snow and rocks. Gently sloping hills greeted them to the north while a more mountainous terrain lay off to the west. A chilly winter wind blew causing the team to shudder and huddle into their cold weather uniforms.

"Wow, it's chilly. And here I thought South America was supposed to be warm and tropical," Ella mumbled while adjusting her thermal scarf.

"According to the map, we're actually closer to Antarctica than we are to the tropics," Erin chimed in glumly while eying a small portable GPS device.

Erik surveyed the wintry steppe with a pair of binoculars before handing them off to the Green Ranger. "Based on the terrain, do you have any ideas where the Xenos might have run off to Bara? The dam and science facility shouldn't be too far from here."

Bharata scanned the tundra carefully before gesturing for the team to follow him, "I think I might have spotted a fresh trail. Come on."

As the others moved to follow him, Martin stopped and watched in curiosity as Jake pulled something from his rucksack. The Silver Nova Ranger unfolded a telescoping metal pole and dug it into the snow before attaching a flag to it. Upon unfurling it, everyone could see it was a British Union Jack.

"Jake… buddy, what are you doing?" Martin asked in confusion.

"Just reminding the Argentinians who's boss," Jake replied as he finished securing the little flag. "They once tried to steal the Falklands from the UK. I just thought I'd mess with them a little."

"You guys won that war… and it was over a hundred years ago," Martin pointed out.

"True, but this is just so they don't get any ideas," Jake winked as he grabbed his gear and hurried after the others. The Red Ranger could only shake his head in bemusement toward the fluttering British flag before following the rest of the team across the rocky tundra.

A short time later, Nova Squadron picked up the trail of the Xeno invaders in the snow and ice. Using Bharata's experience, they determined a platoon strength group of footsoldiers had gone one route while the larger footprints of a field commander type went around the other way. Because the hydroelectric dam and the research facility was close, the Rangers prioritized the commander and opted to go after him instead. They followed the paths for a while longer until they came upon the monstrous form of the Xeno Refractor at the edge of a river. The Xeno looked to be headed upstream toward the dams.

The faceless armored humanoid trudged up the bank toward its destination with a deliberate methodical gait. Jake reached for his comm, "Atlantis Base, we have visual contact with the Xeno warrior. Please advise."

Back in base Ops, Pruitt stood over Lucy at her console flanked by two military advisers. Both advisors gave a quiet nod and Pruitt grimaced, "Very well. Nova Squadron, you are clear to engage and destroy, but advance with caution."

The six Rangers hurried up the riverbend and stood waiting to bar its path. Eventually, the Xeno reached them and froze at the sight of the humans. Erin stepped forward and clenched a fist, "Hold it right there Xeno. That's far enough!"

The Xeno paused and tilted its faceless mask toward them before it raised its palm and a large holographic image of Warmaster Hellspont appeared. The sinister general had donned his fearsome helmet in the recording and regarded them with his red glowing infrared eyes, "Rangers, if you are viewing this, then know your days are numbered. The Machine Overlord has sent this Omega Trooper, one of many to bring your planet to its knees. If you know what's best, you will stand aside and surrender your humanity to us."

Jake cracked his knuckles and regarded the new enemy warrior, "You know, our kind doesn't make it a habit of killing the messenger during wars, but I think we're going to make an exception for you. What do you say to that?"

The mute battle droid stood in silence before taking a ready stance.

"Not a talker huh? Well we've got something to say," Martin called prompting the rest of the team to follow suit.

The Rangers reached for their morphers in unison and hit a button, " _Energize_!"

In a flash of colored light, the six stood against the Xeno warrior in their own Ranger battle suits. As they called their weapons to their hands, Erik gripped his Nova Striker in a defensive stance, "All right, let's keep our guards up. We don't know what this new Omega Trooper is capable of."

Erin activated her vibroblade and moved to attack first, "There's only one way to find out and I've been itching to get back into the fight! Jake, cover me!"

"You got it luv," the Silver Ranger called as he converted his Fusion Striker to rifle mode and fired a volley of blaster bolts at the droid Refractor. To everyone's surprise, Refractor stood his ground and took the damage, staggering back slightly from the force of the bolts. While the Xeno did, it used its advanced sensors to scan Jake's weapon.

Meanwhile, Erik, Erin, and Ella sprinted forward together with their vibroblades and made a combined leaping attack at their foe. Refractor raised its armored hands to deflect the initial onslaught, but then half heartedly put up a defense, letting itself get hit by several of the Rangers' follow up slashes. Amid the melee, Erin led the way, batting aside Refractor's guard and landing another vicious strike across its midsection before kicking off its chest and backflipping clear.

Erik and Ella moved to cover her from a counterattack that never came and looked on in surprise as the Xeno again scanned their weapons. As it finished and stepped forward, a hail of several blaster shots rang out from the flank while Martin and Bharata fired their Nova Blaster pistols. Each shot struck home against Refractor and caused him to stagger backwards, but as he did, the Xeno scanned the pistols too continuing to unnerve the Rangers with its eerie silence.

"Looks like we got him good sir," Bharata grinned as he lined up another shot, "He's not even defending himself now."

"Let's not give him a chance to catch his breath," Martin nodded, "Overcharge mode."

Both Rangers overcharged their blaster pistols and fired supercharged bursts of energy at the Xeno. To their amazement, Refractor stood his ground and a bright shimmering light began to radiate from the nodes around its metallic body. The overcharged shots struck Refractor head on, engulfing him a huge explosion and causing the other Rangers to recoil back for a moment against the light and heat.

When the blast died down, the Rangers blinked in shocked horror as Refractor walked through the fires, seemingly unharmed from the attack. Bharata frowned and fired a few more low powered blaster shots but this time, the bolts reflected off the Xeno's body as the special nodes glowed and projected a fluidic layer of shielding around it. As it marched forward through Bharata's fire, it raised a blaster cannon which activated from its forearm and returned a burst of energy which blasted the Red and Green Rangers aside.

"What is going on?" Ella asked in panic.

Erik leveled his vibroblade for another charge. "We'll just do this the hard way then. Charge!"

He and the two girls sprinted forward and laid into the Xeno with their blades again. Just like with the blasters, the Xeno's crystalline nodes activated and the Rangers' vibroblades deflected harmlessly off its body shield. Erin growled as she tried to thrust her blade in another stabbing attack, but her weapon could not penetrate the force field. Refractor grabbed her blade with its hand and violently hurled it aside, along with the Yellow Ranger holding it. Despite her comrades' attempts to cover for her, Refractor backhanded Ella aside and kicked Erik backward sending both Rangers sprawling to the ground several yards away.

Jake watched in dismay as his friends lay stunned on the snowy grounds around him. The faceless Xeno droid turned its head up toward him and the Silver Ranger converted his weapon into a sword bayonet, "All right, if that's the way you want it, then come at me!"

Nearby, Martin stumbled to his knees and helped Erin up while still shaking the stars from his eyes. He could see Jake was evasively trying to hold his own in a melee with the Omega Trooper, but the best he could do was hope to play defense. He could hear chatter on the comms in his helmet but Lucy was speaking over the others, "Martin? Are you okay?"

"Not exactly," he answered grimly, "Our weapons are ineffective against the Xeno. Now might be a good time for those new weapons you've been building."

"Negative Captain," cut in the voice of Ms. Pruitt, "I can't authorize those weapons to be used yet. We can't risk the whole team getting hurt or blown up."

"We can't risk not trying!" Erik growled as he staggered to his feet, "If we can't stop that thing, the dam blows up and we lose the base here."

Pruitt looked to her two advisors and they both shook their heads.

"My advisors and I voted and we've decided against that action," Pruitt answered sharply, "You have your orders Rangers."

"Ms. Pruitt," Lucy protested in a worried voice but she was cut off. "You can trust my tech… the Rangers are in trouble…"

"I've made up my mind Dr. Beckett," Pruitt said looking to her expectantly.

Back on the battlefield, Jake went flying back into the snow before Refractor turned on the team and activated a surprise attack from its armor. The crystalline nodes glowed with a flash and its force barrier shot out in an offensive attack, slamming into all six Rangers. As they were hammered back into the snow, Martin rolled over and turned to the Yellow Ranger, "Erin… work your magic. Patch me through directly to Julian. Hurry!"

Erin nodded and the team's communications officer used a special function in her helmet to route a private radio transmission to Julian's workstation. "Julian! Are you there?"

The tech looked up from his lab table and almost dropped his current project. "Captain Sterling? Is that you?"

"Julian! This is an emergency! No time to explain. I need you to transport one of those new plasma pistols to me ASAP."

He didn't know what was going on, but the urgency in his voice meant the team was in danger. If he was in trouble, that likely meant Erin was in trouble too. Without a second thought, he grabbed a new plasma pistol and stuck it on a small emergency transporter in the lab. "Stand by Captain. Transporting now."

The snowy winds continued to howl on the Patagonian plains as the Omega Trooper Refractor closed in for the kill on the downed Nova Rangers. Having been in the middle of private transmission, Erin turned to her fellow Rangers. "Everyone, we need to hold that thing off for just a little longer! Come on!"

She sprung up and initiated a grapple with the incoming alien warrior. The others shook off their weariness and let a fresh adrenaline rush carry them through as they joined in and tried to gang-tackle the Xeno. While they struggled to restrain Refractor, Martin squared up and reached out as a new blaster pistol materialized from his morpher. He quickly gripped the sleek new plasma pistol and powered it up without wasting any time.

Back in Ops, Lucy sat dumbfounded as she watched one of her new weapons be fielded for the first time. Ms. Pruitt ground her teeth furiously, "What the… Dr. Beckett! I gave strict orders! I told you not to transport the…"

"I didn't do anything!" Lucy snapped back before turning to the screen with a hopeful expression. She didn't know how that happened, but she prayed her new gun would work.

As the other Rangers tumbled away, Refractor turned toward Martin in surprise. The Red Ranger leveled the glowing pistol on the Xeno while taking careful aim, "You're not the only one with a secret weapon Xeno. I've got one too."

Refractor continued walking forward seemingly unperturbed and reaching its hand out to try and grab the Ranger. Martin pulled the trigger and fired a blistering hail of new blue plasma bolts which seared the air. The enhanced pistol shots struck the Xeno full in the chest and sent it reeling back amid a cloud of smoke and sparks which erupted violently. As the Rangers regrouped, they watched as the wounded Refractor silently rose back to its feet and showed several noticeable spots where the plasma shots had penetrated its strong armor.

"Are you going to stay down this time?" the Red Ranger called as he began to overcharge his pistol for another devastating strike.

Refractor lit up its armored nodes and momentarily blinded the team with a burst of snow and light from its shield projectors. When the snow cleared, the Rangers saw the Xeno had made its escape. They had managed to drive their enemy off for now and while it wasn't exactly a victory, it wasn't a defeat either. Given how outclassed the were, it was a welcome result. After their suits powered down from such a taxing fight, Erik took a moment to look around and survey the battlefield, "We certainly took a beating here and need to regroup. The UN science facility shouldn't be too far. Do we head there?"

Martin shook his head and looked down to where his morpher was blinking with an incoming message. "I have a feeling we're going to be headed back to base for one more beating now... and it's not going to be pleasant."


	3. Under Protest

**Mission 17: Part 2  
**

Upon returning to the transporter room of the base, the Nova Rangers were met by Ms. Pruitt, her advisors, Lucy, and Julian. As they stepped off the platform Pruitt narrowed her eyes and took up a small datapad in her hand, regarding them with a stern glare. "Captain Sterling, you've got a lot of explaining to do. Both you and Mr. Julian Wilson."

Lucy frowned and put a protective hand on her aide's shoulder, "Don't drag Julian into this. He didn't know what was going on. He thought the Rangers were in trouble and was just following orders."

"Oh he followed orders… just not mine," Pruittt replied toward the chief engineer.

"Dr. Beckett is right," Martin cut in with a level voice, "If you're going to discipline anyone, then do it to me. Don't punish Julian. I asked him to transport that weapon and I take full responsibility for his actions too."

Julian tried to protest but Pruitt silenced him with a raised hand. She looked to the Red Ranger and marched right up to him, "You violated a direct order Captain. You went behind my back. You disrespected my advisors' decision, and you disrespected me."

"And I'd do it again if I had to," Martin replied with blunt defiance in his voice.

Ella marched up beside him with an incensed look, "And while we're at it, I think you need to get yourself some new advisors. You've never participated in a battle situation and without Dr. Beckett's weapons, we would've been toast out there."

"Regardless, that was not your decision to make Lt. Catalano. There are chains of commands and rules for a reason."

"And sometimes you have to throw all that out in the middle of a life or death struggle," Erin piped up to support Ella's protest. "If we followed every protocol to the exact period, we'd be locked in meaningless debates while the Xenos burned the entire planet down around us."

Pruitt glared at Erin before turning to Martin, "Your subordinate is out of line Captain."

Martin smirked slightly and put a supportive arm around Erin's shoulders, "Not to me. In fact she's speaking the truth."

The UN administrator clenched her jaw and gripped her datapad tightly, "Make no mistake. I will report this. I know you're loyal to General Caldwell and you're disobeying orders to spite me in front of the others…"

"I violated orders to protect the lives of my squadmates," Martin said flatly, "Their lives and completing the mission objective comes first every time, so with respect Ma'am… get over yourself."

Pruitt looked to the Rangers and then back their leader, "If that's your position, so be it. I'm ordering Nova Squad back to Argentina to protect the research facility from the remaining enemy forces there. Captain Sterling, I'm relieving you of command and placing you under suspension for the time being. Unless I order you back into battle, you will be confined to the base until I can figure out whether or not to court–martial you."

"Then you'll have to court-martial me too," Erik angrily barked as he stepped forward to his commander's defense. "We're not going back into battle without him."

Martin shook his head gently and placed a calming hand on the Blue Ranger's shoulder to hold him back, "Thank you Erik, but protecting that research base comes first. You're in charge for now."

The other Rangers stood in helpless silence before Lucy cleared her throat and addressed Pruitt, "And what about Julian?"

The administrator took a quick sidelong glance to the technician and headed out of the room with her advisors, "Just make sure he stays out of trouble Dr. Beckett. He's your responsibility and I don't want this happening again."

* * *

A few hours later, the Nova Rangers under Erik's command were teleported back to Argentina and sent to the UNAF research facility. Despite the winter weather, the large waterfall and dam nearby had not frozen over. As another cold breeze blew over the terrain, the team camped out in a small enclosed watchtower that was built adjacent to the base. Jake kept a vigilant watch over the area with his sniper scope while Erik paced restlessly. He only stopped when Bharata took a break from his own watch and gave his friend a nudge, "Are you okay Captain? You look a little on edge."

"I don't like this Bara," Erik replied with a grimace, "We're just sitting out here waiting for a Xeno attack when we should be proactive. That Omega Trooper was injured by the new Nebula Blaster. We should be trying to kill it while it's down."

"Normally I'd agree sir, but we still have to hold this fort in case of a diversion. There's still a platoon of clone troopers out there somewhere," Jake noted while watching the landscape.

The Blue Ranger crossed his arms and sighed, "I know... I just have a bad feeling about everything. First we lose Caldwell and now it looks like Martin might be next on Pruitt's chopping block."

"We're not going to let that happen," Ella chimed in as she and Erin climbed up some stairs to join them in the watchtower. "And we'll start by keeping our strength up."

She and Erin carried a container of heated food which smelled good against the cold snow and ice outside. Erin passed out a few utensils and opened the container, "Ella and I heated up some field rations. I give you, SPAM a la Reilly. It's a secret family recipe."

Bharata took a piece of the cooked canned meat and began chewing it, "Hmm, no potatoes or cabbage on the side?"

"Haha. Very funny Bara," the Yellow ranger sighed as she punched his arm and passed the food around to the others. When she got to Erik, she stopped and gave a concerned look, "Hey... everything okay Erik?"

The Blue Ranger took a piece of SPAM and forced a weak smile, "Oh, sorry. I was just thinking..."

"About what we were going to do if the Xenos attack?" Erin supplied.

Erik nodded, "Yeah. My concern is how we're going stop that Omega Trooper and get past its defenses. We don't have a lot of new surprise tricks to play at the moment."

The Yellow Ranger nodded and tried to give an encouraging smile, "Well... cheer up Captain. Martin may be grounded right now, but I'm sure he and Dr. Beckett are figuring something out to help us. I know they'll pull through for us if and when we need it."

"Thanks Erin," he said to his new second in command, "I just hope you're right."

* * *

Meanwhile, back in Atlantis Base, a light snow fell outside as Martin sat glumly on the couch of one of the base's empty lounge rooms. He idly looked out the window and sloshed around the contents of a tumbler glass in his hand. After what had happened recently, he decided a strong drink was in order and a bottle of hard liquor sat on the end table nearby. As he took another sip, he toyed with a folded up paper airplane in his other hand. The paper had been part of the new mission report forms but he decided this was a better use for it. The tail fins were marked USAF and the wings bore a hand drawn star and stripe insignia of the US Air Force. At this rate, this looked to be the only fighter plane he was going to fly for a while.

The Red Ranger flicked his wrist and let the paper plane fly in the air. It did a limp loop in the air before sailing toward the door. At that moment, the door opened and Lucy walked in. She stopped as the paper airplane hit her right in the face and bounced off her glasses. She gave a mild frown before sighing and picking up the plane, "I think you need to work on your landings. You could put someone's eye out with this thing."

"Oh no! I'm so sorry Lucy," Martin apologized as he sat up on the couch.

She waved it off and came to sit down next to him on the couch, "How are you? I wanted to come by after work to see how you were doing."

"Considering I got my wings clipped? I'm great," he muttered while taking another sip of his drink, "Honestly, the things I'm most worried about right now are the other Rangers and what trumped up charges might be leveled at me if Pruitt does draw up a formal hearing."

"Do you really think she'd be stupid enough to court-martial you?" Lucy said leaning back on the couch and resting the side of her head on her friend's shoulder.

"She said it herself," Martin grimaced, "I think she knows that people like you and I will stand in her way… probably because we're still loyal to Caldwell and we both have a little bit of pull here among the people of the base."

Lucy nodded and handed him the datapad that she had carried with her, "Well, I do have something that should cheer you up a little."

She pulled up a schematic display of a tube looking weapon along with readouts of the enemy Omega Trooper the Rangers had encountered. "I received an encoded message from our good friend Taldyr. I've been going over the data of your last battle and cross referenced it with the data he provided in his short transmission. The results were very interesting. Do you see these special nodes all along the Xeno's body? Those are the source of its protective defense shields."

Martin nodded, "Right, and they were able to adapt to almost everything we were able to throw at it. It was like the alien scanned our weapons and tuned his shields in a special way to stop our attacks. The only reason that new Nebula Blaster worked was because the Xeno wasn't expecting it."

Lucy tapped the screen again and zoomed in on the nodes, "Yes. But according to Taldyr, the alien also showed its weakness. It was willing to take a little damage in order to adapt its defenses. It is so reliant on these nodes for protection that without them, the Xeno would be helpless."

"Okay," Martin shrugged, "So how are we supposed to get through the enemy's shields and armor?"

Lucy pointed to the schematics of the tubular cannon colored in yellow grid lines. "With this. This is a specially designed weapon for Erin. It's a unique sonic cannon capable of projecting soundwaves that are able to destroy objects, or blind and disorient Xeno soldiers. I'm thinking it could be especially effective against this new enemy. With enough power, those sonic waves should be able to penetrate the shield and cause the Xeno's crystalline nodes to shatter."

"Meaning no more shield! Lucy, you're a genius!" Martin grinned as he rose to his feet, "Let's figure out how to relay that message to the Rangers."

"In a minute," she said as she produced a small folded envelope that she had also carried with her, "Mail call went by today and you got a letter so I said I'd deliver it to you on the way."

She handed him the envelope and the Red Ranger opened it up curiously. Lucy got up and walked over to join him as he read the note. It was on fine stationary with the UN governmental seal. "What is it?"

He took a moment to skim over the letter before frowning in confusion, "It's a letter from Mrs. Massey... Jake's mother."

"She's some high ranking secretary to the British Ambassador of the UN, isn't she?" Lucy asked.

He nodded in confusion, "Yes. She sent a letter asking if her son is well and if he's adjusting to the regime change here. She said his father in the British Army learned about General Caldwell's dismissal and grew a bit concerned."

"Very curious..." Lucy muttered thoughtfully, "Why would they be writing you and not Jake?"

Martin shrugged, "I don't know. I wonder if I should be truthful and tell them what's really going on here. Mrs. Massey wrote a little postscript here and says if there's anything they can do to help, let them know and don't mind the details... whatever that means."

The two friends looked at each other before Lucy took his hand and led him out the door, "Come on. Let's try to get into contact with Caldwell. In the meantime, I've got to finish Erin's little gift."

* * *

The next day, the rest of Nova Squadron did a foot patrol along the outskirts of the dam and research facility. As they trudged through the snow with Erik leading the way, Jake rubbed his hands to stay warm and made idle chit chat with Ella. "You know... I was wondering what's so important about this base we're guarding. I mean, why the heck is it all the way out here in the middle of nowhere?"

The Pink Ranger pulled her winter coat tighter around her and felt grateful that the bulky standard issue flak vests of UNAF soldiers added an extra layer of insulation. "Whatever it is, it's probably important. Before you joined up, we went on a mission to a remote base in Alaska to transport nuclear fuel rods for the space fleet."

"I spoke to some of the people around the base," Bharata chimed in as he marched with them, "They say they're doing some kind of testing for the fleet's technology. That could mean weapons testing, or maybe even that warp drive stuff Dr. Beckett was talking about. That's all anyone would say and they seemed pretty tight lipped."

"I thought you were a recon guy yourself," Erin teased Jake gently, "I'm surprised you didn't think to gather information and ask around."

The Silver Ranger snorted in amusement, "You forget Lieutenant. We're in Argentina and they've still held a bit of a grudge against Britain. I don't intend to poke my nose around and start fights in a place where I'm not exactly welcome."

The squad was immediately silenced as Erik froze and raised his fist signaling a halt. Everyone froze and looked around in tense silence. They were near a ridge at the edge of the dam and looked up to their left for any enemies on the high ground. They were immediately greeted by a a Xeno sniper shot which whizzed by and exploded in the snow near the squad. The Rangers scattered and dove for the ground as a few more stray shots rang out overhead from the ridge. The five Nova Rangers looked up and spotted a group of snipers covering the advance of the rest of their clone trooper platoon and the Omega Trooper Refractor. The Xeno warrior looked to be functional again and sported some welded patches over the spots it had been damaged before.

"Phew! That was close!" Ella gasped before Jake put an arm over her to keep her down from the sniper fire.

"Amen to that," Jake muttered, "Let's just be grateful those clone snipers have shitty aim."

Erin reached for her morpher and activated its force shield mode to provide some extra defense against the enemy blaster fire, "All right Dobermann, what's the plan?"

Erik rose to a crouch and fired back with a spray of shots from his portable assault rifle. As the snipers took cover, Erik reached for his morpher, "I think the answer is obvious. Everyone?"

" _Energize_!" came the unified cry as the five Rangers morphed in a flash of light.

The incoming Eidolons paused a moment, frozen in intimidation before they rushed forward to meet the Rangers along with Refractor. As the Rangers drew their weapons, Erik waved the team forward, "Let's get them! Jake, keep those snipers off us!"

"Yes sir!" The Silver Ranger grinned as he converted his special weapon into rifle mode. He did a combat roll and lined up the target crosshairs on one of the Eidolon snipers on the ridge. If they wanted to challenge him to a five on one sharp-shooting sniper duel, then he'd gladly oblige them. While the sniper shots whistled by overhead Ella pulled her pistol and fired several shots at the ground in front of her to kick up a cloud of snow and rocks from the tundra.

As the Eidolons recoiled from the spray of snow and ice, the Pink Ranger did a flying somersault into their ranks and bashed them aside with some fierce whirling punches and roundhouse kicks. On the other side of the field, Bharata activated his morpher's temporary stealth mode and blended in with the icy surroundings. The clone troopers around him fired a few wild shots and stopped, looking around in confusion at having lost fight of him. Moments later, several clone troopers were dropped from a surprise attack from the Green Ranger. With lightning quickness, Bharata downed a handful of them with debilitating martial arts strikes on their joints and pressure points.

Meanwhile, Erik and Erin pushed their way through the melee to get to the silent enemy commander. As they broke through, the battle droid activated the powerful blaster cannon on its forearm and fired several shots toward the nearby dam. No doubt the blasts would do some damage, but if the Rangers kept Refractor busy, they could limit the destruction and hopefully prevent a full on leak. Erik was the first to leap and kicked aside the Xeno's cannon arm. Seeing as how the enemy had already scanned their standard weapons, Erik decided to try and resort to some basic hand to hand combat.

The Xeno recoiled and swung its other fist around but Erin leapt in from the side and used a martial arts grapple to turn Refractor on his heel and redirect the force of the blow away into a harmless miss. The Blue Ranger immediately followed up the attack with a forceful punch in the chest of the Xeno sending it reeling backwards.

Erik and Erin squared up again and took defensive stances while Refractor silently regained its footing. The Omega Trooper waited for moment before raising its arm again and firing a few more shots at the dam.

"Oh no you don't!" the Yellow Ranger growled as she jumped for the blaster arm and tried to restrain it from firing off any more shots. She struggled with the Xeno for a moment before Refractor used its greater size and strength to push her back and shove her right into Erik. The two Rangers knocked into each other a moment and kept themselves from falling over in the snow but that moment cost them. The Xeno turned its blaster arm on the two defenseless Rangers and blasted both of them backwards at point blank range.

The Blue and Yellow Rangers tumbled to the ground in a stunned heap and struggled to rise again to confront their alien foe. To their horror, they could only stare in shock as Refractor readied another devastating attack. The two Rangers could only pause in dread as they watched Refractor's crystal nodes light up and activate along its body. In a heartbeat, the Rangers were blinded by a burst of light and the impact of the Xeno's powerful force field attack.


	4. The Sound and the Fury

**Mission 17: Part 3  
**

The sounds of a warm crackling fire was heard in the background of the video chat as General Caldwell sat on the other end of the line speaking to Martin and Lucy. Behind him was the warm glow of a fireplace and the older gray haired general took a casual sip of hot coffee. After getting relieved of duty, Caldwell had taken an extended leave to return home to Canada and figure out his next move. To say the least, it was a bit unusual seeing him out of uniform and not completely clean shaven. He had traded in his starched military uniform for a warm red and black flannel shirt. The familiar backdrop of his office had been replaced with the warm inviting wood and brick of his cabin style house near some woods.

"Again, I really appreciate you two calling," Caldwell sighed, "As nice as it is to be home again, I still can't help but feel restless, you know?"

"We all miss you here sir," Martin nodded, "Pruitt is an incompetent tyrant... the worst kind. I'm just glad she hasn't ordered anyone to their death yet."

Caldwell grimaced before returning the sympathetic nod, "I'm sorry I couldn't protect you all from the IOC. I have a feeling they had it in for me and were just looking for any excuse to fire me. I suppose I shouldn't be complaining though. I'm not the one with a potential court-martial hanging over my head. Did you really go that far for me?"

The Red Ranger shifted with a sheepish expression, "Well... yes. If you've taught me anything, it's that you'd put yourself in the line of fire to protect the people under you, so I was just following your example and standing up for my team too."

Caldwell gave a small smile and shifted his mug in his hand, "Well Martin, if God forbid they dishonorably discharge you, you and Lucy are welcome to come visit me here in Vancouver. I've got more than enough hockey on tv, booze, and maple syrup to get us through the winter."

Lucy chuckled slightly, "We appreciate the offer General. The real reason we're calling is because we received an unusual letter in the mail. Jake's mother Mrs. Massey wrote to Martin asking about how Jake was doing here. It sounds like her husband Col. Massey found out about your dismissal and was sympathetic towards you."

Caldwell smiled and chewed his lip in thought, "Ah... well, like I said before I haven't met him, but I do know he's a respectable officer and was one of my admirers."

Lucy held up the envelope that was mailed and raised an eyebrow, "All well and good, but they extended a vague offer of help too. The other question is why they'd address the note to Martin."

Caldwell leaned back and thought for a moment, "My guess? Something must be going on in the upper echelons of the UN government and military. If they're privy to something troubling, then they probably felt it best to contact Jake's immediate commanding officer. My guess is, they want to help protect Jake from something while keeping up appearances that they're not on to anything."

"What could that troubling something be?" Martin asked with a frown, "Something political? Because that's above any of our pay grades here."

Caldwell sat in pensive silence for a long moment before looking up again, "Whatever it is, I recommend you both keep your ears open and your guards up. If the Masseys think they can help, then I'd write them back and ask for it. I trust Jake's father and at the moment, both you and I have nothing to lose Captain."

"Yes sir. Thanks again," Martin said giving a small respectful salute.

As they finished their conversation, the base alarms went off signaling another alien attack. Lucy picked up her datapad and tucked it under her arm, "Okay, I think that's our cue. General, always a pleasure talking."

"Good luck kids... and tell the other Rangers I'm behind them too." Caldwell said before signing off.

Lucy headed for the door, "All right, now let's get to Ops before Pruitt has another hissy fit."

* * *

Meanwhile, on the snowy Patagonian plains of Argentina, the Nova Rangers continued battling Refractor and the other Xeno forces attacking the dam. Erik shook off the blow from the alien's force field attack and helped Erin rise. His head was spinning from the impact and he felt his suit's bio field waver for a moment as it threatened to demorph the two. "Are you okay Erin?"

"I'll live," she grunted while regaining her footing, "As long as we keep from taking another hit like that. Our suits almost gave out there."

To their relief, they saw that Bara and Ella had finished off the other footsoldiers while Jake prepared to finish his shootout with the remaining two enemy snipers. Both clones ducked down into cover causing the Silver Ranger to growl in frustration. As he scanned the ridge, he noted their position. They had both ducked down at the edge of the rocky slope and huddled up together for protection. Jake charged his next shot and fired a large blast at the outcropping instead. If he couldn't gun down the enemies themselves, he's just shoot out the ground under them.

The blast caught the Eidlon snipers by surprise and the ground gave way under them sending the last of the troopers plummeting headfirst into the hard icy ground below. Jake gave a pleased smirk and lowered his smoking rifle weapon, "Bullseye."

With that, the team regrouped around Erik to take on the last Xeno on the field. The Omega Trooper silently regarded them looking no more unperturbed that he was now fighting three more Rangers at once.

"Okay... now what?" Ella asked as she turned to Erik, "I think we're out of options."

The Blue Ranger thought for a moment about what else they could do. They had thrown just about everything they could at the alien... except for one thing. He reached for his morpher, "Dr. Beckett, we're going to need the Prism Cannon, ASAP!"

"Hold on Erik, it's on the way," Lucy answered as she reached her tactical station with Martin. "Transporting now!"

The Rangers waited for a few seconds before their large field gun materialized before them. The Xeno Refractor continued its silent march forward not showing any fear of the new weapon. As the Rangers assembled the cannon and loaded the charges, the Omega Trooper raced them and quickly scanned their new weapon. As Erik lined up the shot, he braced himself behind the trigger, "All right! Target locked. Fire!"

The Rangers fired the Prism Cannon and the positronic burst of energy erupted toward the advancing Xeno. It halted and raised its newly adapted shield to absorb the impact of the weapon. True to its name, the alien refracted the powerful bolt of energy causing some rays to deflect off and explode along the nearby grounds while the rest of the beam was reflected back at the Ranges, exploding all over them. A cloud of fire erupted as a shockwave spread across the snowy plains and the Nova Rangers were swept aside easily.

Back in Atlantis Ops, Martin turned to Pruitt and her advisors with a horrified look, "We have to help the Rangers! They're going to get killed out there!"

Pruitt stuttered in confusion while the advisors stood silent, unsure of how to proceed, "I... uh... what do we do now?"

The Red Ranger clenched his teeth and headed for the doors, "To hell with your orders Pruitt. I'm going to help my team. Lucy, tell Julian I'm on my way and have him ready our new little care-package. I'll deliver it myself."

Pruitt began to protest but Lucy ignored her giving him a smile and a nod, "Understood! Hurry Captain!"

* * *

As the flames began to die down, Erik Dobermann shook his head out. His head was throbbing and he could feel the cold wind on his face. He jerked up from the snowy ground and saw that he and his fellow teammates were all laying stunned in the snow and all of them had demorphed. As the others weakly tried to rise, they could see the relentless advance of Refractor coming closer to finish them off. That was when a hand suddenly reached down into the Blue Ranger's field of vision. Erik rolled over with a disoriented grunt and looked up in surprise to see a familiar face extending a supportive hand.

"Sorry I'm late. Need a hand Captain?"

The Blue Ranger took the hand and felt himself hauled back to his feet in relief, "Martin! Glad to see you, sir. What are you doing here?"  
The morphed Red Nova Ranger regarded the Xeno warrior for a moment before reaching for his morpher, "Long story. I'm here to help you take down this bucket of bolts, and to do that, we're going to break a few rules."

He hit a button and in a flash, a sleek cylindrical cannon which resembled a rocket launcher materialized from the transporter link. The weapon was detailed in yellow and Martin handed it off to a shocked looking Erin, "I come bearing gifts Lt. Reilly... compliments of Dr. Beckett."

"Sweet! I must have been a good girl," Erin laughed as she took her personalized unique weapon and admired it for a moment.

"Erin, that is a high powered sonic cannon," Lucy called over her radio link, "I'm sending you instructions and targeting info. If you can knock out that alien's shield nodes with a high frequency burst, you may be able to disable it."

"Thanks for the assist Dr. B! I won't let you down," Erin answered as she remorphed and skimmed over the data readout at the side of her visor's HUD.

Back in Atlantis Base Ops, Pruitt whirled around on Lucy with an apoplectic expression, "Dr. Beckett, what do you think you're doing? I didn't authorize you to transport that new weapon."

"I don't remember asking for your permission," Lucy retorted as she gripped her headset and took control of the situation herself, "Rangers, stand by for follow up transports."

"You and the Rangers are all going rogue! What do you think you're doing?" Pruitt snapped. Lucy said nothing and ignored her superior. If the Rangers were all going to catch hell for this, then she'd stand by her friends and get punished too.

On the battlefield, Martin drew his original Nova Blaster and signaled the rest of the team to do so as well, "Understood Lucy. Rangers, covering fire. Erin, get ready!"

The other Rangers fired a blinding volley of laser fire which buffeted Refractor for a moment. Its shield nodes glowed and its forcefield activated to protect the Xeno warrior from the laser bolts. While it was distracted, Erin crouched on her knee and took careful aim with her new weapon. She lined up the shot, powered the cannon, and pulled the trigger unleashing a powerful focused beam of sonic waves. It was so powerful a cloud of snow and ice from the ground sprayed aside for the tunnel of ultrasonic energy. Refractor marched through the blinding laser fire until it was struck by Erin's sonic burst. It immediately froze and was wracked by violent spasms as the unexpected sonic waves penetrated its defenses. As it continued to jerk about, the crystal nodes along its body began to vibrate with the sympathetic sound waves until they cracked and shattered to pieces. As the crystals cracked and burst out of the Xeno in gouts of sparks, the Nova Rangers recalled their weapons and reached for their new and improved arsenal that Lucy was now transporting.

The Red Ranger pulled the Nebula Striker's handle and ignited the beam sword before leveling it on the reeling Xeno, "Rangers, let's put this guy away. All together now!"

Ella joined him with her own pink sword and the two Rangers made a leaping pass at the wounded Omega Trooper. It raised its arms to feebly defend itself but it was no use. The Red and Pink Rangers struck and sliced off both the warrior's forearms with their blades. As they somersaulted aside, Erik, Jake and Bharata lined up a shot with their Nebula Blaster plasma pistols and opened fire together with Erin who had prepped a final finishing blast from her cannon. The plasma bolts punched into the chest plates of Refractor and opened it just enough for the sonic bazooka blast to finish the job and completely obliterate the droid. The Nova Rangers watched as Refractor's upper torso blew apart into a cloud of wreckage before the smoldering hips and knees tumbled lifelessly to the snowy ground.

"All right!" Jake cheered as he have Erik a high five. Erin simply lowered her new cannon with a satisfied smile.

"Reilly to Atlantis, mission accomplished. Enemy has been neutralized."

Bharata gave her a clap on the shoulder while Martin and Ella came over to join them and congratulate everybody. Whatever was going to happen back home, the Rangers decided to enjoy the moment knowing that for now, everyone was safe and together once more.

* * *

A few days passed after the battle in Patagonia and the Nova Rangers made their way together to one of the large administrative buildings on the base campus. They had all donned their dress uniforms and went to support their leader who had been given a formal notice of a court-martial charge. Today was going to be a preliminary hearing to organize the timeline for the case and assigning of attorneys. As they entered the glass building and passed a security checkpoint, Ella looked to her teammates as they rode the elevator to the upper floors, "Do think you they'd pay more attention to us if maybe I made signs and t-shirts with #FreeSterling on them?"

"I appreciate the gesture Ella, but I'm not sure it'll do much good," Martin sighed as he adjusted his shirt collar and ribbon rack. "The military court is an independent body so it'd be wiser if we kept our mouths shut and not piss them off."

The Rangers were escorted into a large room with benches, and a chair facing a panel of senior ranking officers. Pruitt and her advisors had taken up seats at a nearby desk while Martin marched up to face the panel of senior officers. He stopped, gave a respectful salute ans stood at ramrod straight attention.

The presiding officer, a senior Mexican-American Colonel by the name of Medina regarded the Red Ranger and glanced at a datapad, "Captain Martin Sterling, you've been brought before this administrative body to begin the process of a courts-martial. According to the complaint filed by Base Commander Pruitt, you stand accused of Insubordination, Contempt toward a UN official, Failure to obey orders in a battle situation, Unauthorized use and possession of new military weaponry, Inciting mutiny, and Conduct unbecoming of an officer of the UNAF. How do you plead?"

"I don't think he's going to have to answer that question," came a familiar voice from the doors of the room. Everyone stopped and turned with shocked looks to the familiar face of General Caldwell marching down the aisle. Caldwell had cleaned up, put on his uniform again and marched forward flanked by two guards and another Colonel bearing a British flag on his uniform.

Jake's jaw hit the floor as he stared at the British Colonel and murmured, "Dad?"

"I apologize for my late arrival and the dramatic entrance Colonel Medina," Caldwell announced as he strode forward to stand beside Martin. The senior officers rose from their seats to show respect and acknowledge his presence while Martin's eyes went wide.

"General Caldwell? What is going on here?"

The General put a hand on the Red Ranger's shoulder and gave a reassuring nod, "Just sit tight for a moment son. I'll clear this all up."

Ms. Pruitt rose from her seat and frowned, "General Caldwell? What are you doing here? I thought you were relieved of command!"

"Until now," Caldwell smiled as he nodded to Col. Massey. "Colonel? If you'd be so kind?"

Jake's father stepped forward and presented a file and datapad to the judicial panel, "Gentlemen, I am Lt. Col. Massey and these are official orders from the UNAF High Command reinstating General Caldwell to active duty and giving him command of Atlantis Base again."

From where the other Nova Rangers were sitting, they nearly fell out of their seats, "What?"

Pruitt came over to examine the documents herself with an incredulous look, "What kind of trick are you playing here? The UN Council wouldn't just change their minds all of a sudden."

"Except they did," Caldwell smiled with faux politeness, "You can see their official signatures and notarization codes."

"I don't understand this at all..." Ms. Pruitt finally said as she handed back the datapad with complete confusion. "Why?"

"Maybe because they would like to have you bring your profound administrative talents to a more troubled place?" Caldwell suggested while maintaining his false innocent smile.

Col. Medina gave a nod and set down the papers, "It's official all right. Welcome back to the base General. You have command once more."

"Thank you," Caldwell smiled as he adjusted his dress jacket, "That said, my first official act as the presiding officer here will be to dismiss this hearing and drop all charges against Captain Sterling."

The Rangers all gave a cheer while Martin looked like he was about to faint in relief. Caldwell turned to two of the soldiers standing guard in the room and gave a polite nod, "Guards, please see Ms. Pruitt and her associates safely out of the building and off the base. Thank you."

"With pleasure General. Welcome back," one of the guards saluted as he helped to usher Pruitt and her cronies out.

"I don't know how you did this Caldwell! I don't know what you did to the Council but you're not going to get away with it! I'll make sure of it."

"Of course you will. Have a nice trip back to New York!" Caldwell smirked with a wave as Erin and Ella both stuck their tongues out at the former base commander.

Once she left the room, the team regrouped around their beloved General. Erin gave a salute and shook Caldwell's hand enthusiastically, "I don't know what's going on, but we are glad to see you General. Welcome back!"

"You okay boss?" Erik laughed as he threw a friendly arm over Martin. "You were almost raked across the coals there."

The Red Ranger returned the smile meekly, "Yeah... I'm not sure whether I should laugh or throw up right now."

Nearby, Jake stood off to the side and addressed his father, "Dad... I didn't know you were coming... I mean, I'm still glad to see you and all..."

Col. Massey smiled and placed his hands on Jake's shoulders, "I'm sorry for not calling ahead son. This was kind of thrown together last minute. I see you're wearing sergeant stripes now. Congratulations. I'm proud of you."

"Thank you sir," Jake nodded, "But... Dad, did you have something to do with Caldwell returning to the base? What is this all about?"

Col. Massey gave a guarded smile and pulled his son aside, "Let me just say this Jake. Your mother and I were concerned about what was happening here. We've also been concerned with some of the other changes going on with the political and military leaders in the government. As such, we were concerned about you."

"I'm guessing you can't tell us exactly?" Jake asked, "And because you're not supposed to look like you're taking sides?"

"Especially with you," Col. Massey nodded, "Your commanding officer wrote back to us asking for our help and we did. It just so happened that acting toward the greater good fell in line with helping our son."

Jake smiled, "I see... well, can you tell me what you guys did exactly to reinstate Caldwell?"

Col. Massey gave a subtle cat-like smile before putting a datapad in the Silver Ranger's hands, "It's not so much what we did. It's more like what the members of the UN Council already did. I've got to get going now so I'll see you around son."

Jake exchanged a salute with his father before watching Col. Massey quietly exit the room. He glanced at the datapad wondering what exactly was on it before glancing over to his celebrating teammates around Caldwell. As much as he wanted to figure that mystery out, Jake tucked the datapad away and decided to not look a gift horse in the mouth. The Rangers had won the day, his CO was cleared of charges, and Caldwell had returned to the base. That definitely constituted a victory for the good guys. He could only hope that for the time being, everything would return to a state of normalcy here. Aside from the support of his friends and fellow Rangers here, hope was all they really had for a brighter tomorrow.

* * *

 **A/N:**  
 **To those still following the series, thank you so much to all the people who have reviewed, faved, followed, or even just lurked. Hopefully you've enjoyed this short little intro arc to the second half. The political angle was a little different but it's a plot point I wanted to play with a little more. In the mean time, we've still got plenty of new fun weapons coming for the heroes as well as new evil plots by the aliens to conquer Earth.**

 **Coming up will be a lighter story focusing on everyone's favorite resident Italian in Pink, but first I've got some work to do on another fic of mine. Until the next one!**


	5. Ella in Wonderland

**Mission 18: Part 1  
**

Ella Catalano rubbed her eyes and closed the laptop she was working on before standing up to stretch. She had been stuck at one of the base's computer labs all morning helping to edit lines of computer code for its long range radar systems. Although the task wasn't particularly difficult, it had still been a tedious job and she was glad to have finished. As she glanced at her watch, she noticed she had finished early and still had a few hours to spare before afternoon PT drills later.

The Pink Nova Ranger left the computer lab and wandered the busy halls of Atlantis Base wondering what to do with herself in the meantime. She considered grabbing an early lunch, but she also wanted to wait for some of her fellow Rangers to finish their morning tasks and join her. The thought of a short nap was also appealing… if she hadn't already had a big cup of strong coffee earlier while working. She decided to take a stroll and see where things would go from there.

Upon entering the central atrium, Ella stopped as she came across Lucy headed away from the R&D lab while engrossed in reading a datapad. The Pink Ranger gave a friendly wave, "Hey Dr. Beckett! What's up?"

The scientist looked up in surprise as Ella came to walk alongside her, "Oh, Ella… good morning. I wasn't expecting to see you out and about at this hour."

"I finished my work early," the Pink Ranger shrugged, "I could say the same to you. You're usually holed up in your lab. Were you maybe working on a cool new weapon for me?"

Lucy eyed her for a moment before reaching into her labcoat and handing Ella a small metallic baton handle, "Will you settle for a trial version? Maybe we can play with it after your afternoon training session so I can take some readings of it."

"That sounds fair," Ella nodded as she clipped the object to her belt, "Exactly what is it?"

"Patience Ella. You'll find out later," Lucy said as she led them along, "Right now, I was on my way to the transporter room to do some calibrations on our relay networks. If you want to tag along, I hope that doesn't sound too boring to you," Lucy answered apologetically.

"It's no big deal. All the others are still busy right now," Ella shrugged, "Erin was giving a lecture to some of the junior researchers about Xeno-linguistics and Bara was off filing some intelligence reports."

Lucy nodded, "Ah yes… when I left the lab earlier, Julian was still working to perfect the food synthesizer. He was trying to program in apple strudel and Erik had volunteered to help taste-test for him. I don't suppose you know where Martin is this morning, do you?"

Ella giggled, "I bumped into him at breakfast and he said he was taking Jake along on a flying patrol. I guess Jake had been pestering him about wanting to ride in a fighter jet so he finally agreed to take Jake in one of those two-seated trainers."

Lucy laughed as they entered the transporter bay, "I hope Jake didn't eat a large breakfast. If they start practicing some High–G combat maneuvers, that might spell disaster."

When they reached the central control console, Lucy placed the case of tools down on the counter began to take readings. She worked the keyboards for a minute before turning to the Pink Ranger, "Ella, if you don't mind, would you like to help out a little?"

"Sure, what do you need me to do?"

Lucy reached over and handed her the electronic toolkit, "I'm getting some unusual readings from one of our beacons in eastern Canada: Halifax Nova Scotia to be exact. I'd teleport you over there and you can check for anything odd going on at the other end."

"Uh… okay," Ella said hesitantly, "Are you sure this won't make the transport dangerous? Like… those readings won't cause my atoms to get scrambled into oblivion?"

Lucy shook her head, "No. If anything, these are just very minor signal disturbances. They happen from time to time and if there is a real malfunction, then it's only dangerous if we leave it unchecked. I just need you to take a few readings and I'll transport you right back."

Ella got on the platform and gave a hesitant thumbs up. She didn't like the thought of transporting to a faulty beacon alone without her fellow Rangers or going without her combat gear either. Still, if Lucy wasn't worried, then she shouldn't be either. She trusted Dr. Beckett and taking a couple minutes to scan some hardware didn't sound like a particularly hard task either. The platform energized and she was immediately whisked away to her new destination.

* * *

Meanwhile, a Xeno warrior was already at work prowling the wooded outskirts of Halifax, Nova Scotia. After successfully landing a stealth pod, the newest of the Xeno's Omega Troopers emerged and homed in on the nearest signal beacon of the UNAF transport network. Unlike his predecessor Refractor, the Trooper designated as Specter deployed out on its mission alone without the aid of any clone soldier escorts. The lanky humanoid alien crept through the brush in its sleek dark stealth armor and used a sensor on its helmet to locate its target. Its special scanner on its helmet was in the form of a large glowing red lens giving it a bit of a cyclopean look while two sleek sensor fins radiated out from the sides of the helmet to intercept any interesting radio signals.

When it found the transporter nav beacon, Specter bent down and began using built in tools from its wrist to meddle with the systems. While it worked, the Xeno warrior received a private radio channel from its lunar mothership with Warmaster Hellspont on the other end of the line. "Remember your assignment. When one of the Terrans come to repair their transporter beacon, you will use that as your opportunity to infiltrate the Rangers' home base."

"Acknowledged Warmaster," Specter answered in a digitized monotone voice, "Once there, I will recover as much secret data as I can and sabotage their defense systems."

"Do not fail me," Hellspont said before cutting off the transmission.

Specter made a few more tweaks to his work before stepping back and activating a camouflage mode while hiding in some nearby brush. No sooner had Specter taken cover, the beacon lit up and deposited the Pink Nova Ranger nearby. Ella took a moment to admire the snowy Canadian woodlands which were just off the coast before pulling out her scanners and radioing back, "I made it to Halifax. So far so good Dr. B. Starting the diagnostic scans now."

As Ella used some of the tools to take some quick readings of the relay beacon, she hummed a song quietly to herself trying to keep from thinking about how cold it was outside. While she worked, she didn't notice the Xeno operative creeping up behind her. At one point, she pulled out a small repair tool to recalibrate some system settings herself, "That's odd… some of these systems don't look right at all."

Just as she finished taking her scans and doing some minor repairs, Specter struck and surprised Ella by grabbing her from behind and clamping a hand over her mouth. "Do not resist me Terran. You will do what I say now."

Ella manipulated one of the electronic repair devices in her hand and turned it back against the Xeno to give it a mild shock in the thigh. Specter loosened its grip just enough for Ella to slip free and back up toward the beacon. She quickly sent an emergency call from her morpher, "Dr. B, we've got trouble! I need an emergency beam-out now!"

Moments later, the beacon activated again and locked on to Ella's coordinates. As it did, the Omega Trooper surprised her and jumped into the teleport field with her just as the transporter fully activated. Having been caught off guard and off balance, Ella was blinded by the light and stumbled backwards.

* * *

When the light faded, Ella gave a startled cry and fell over backwards on the transit platform of Atlantis Base. She sat up and took a moment to examine herself and her surroundings. She hadn't been hurt. It looked like all her molecules were intact and she was now back in the safety of her home base… except. She rose to her feet and looked up in surprise to see a different person sitting behind the console of the transporter controls. Behind the desk was Staff Sergeant Braun. The young blonde-haired blue-eyed woman was one of Erik's compatriots from Germany who occasionally assisted in the engineering department. But why was she here?

"Lieutenant Catalano? Are you okay Ma'am?" Sgt. Braun asked in concern as she sat up in her seat.

Ella blinked and shook her head out while walking off the platform, "I'm fine Sergeant… I think. Umm, what are you doing here? Where is Dr. Beckett?"

"I'm on duty here today Ma'am," Braun answered in mild confusion, "I don't know about any Dr. Beckett."

The Pink Ranger scratched her head, "Wait… that doesn't make sense. She was just here a minute ago. I made an emergency distress call and… wait, what about the Xeno? Where is he?"

Sgt. Braun raised her eyebrows in concern, "I don't know what you're talking about Ma'am. We didn't pick up an emergency call from you, and there isn't any Xeno running around either. Are you feeling all right? Maybe you should report to Medical."

Ella took a moment to steady her breathing and compose herself, "Ah… okay. Thank you Sergeant. Maybe I will."

The Pink Ranger left the transporter room trying to make sense of what was going on. Had there been a transporter malfunction? Had something in her brain been scrambled and maybe she was hallucinating? Did she dream that whole encounter with that Xeno up? As she walked down the hallways of the base, she stopped when she rounded a turn and collided with a bigger man.

"Hey! Watch where you're going!" came the surly reply as Ella looked up to see the scowling expression of the Blue Ranger.

"Erik? I'm sorry, is everything okay?"

He gave an ill tempered huff and continued stalking off, "I was doing fine until you decided to be a big klutz."

Ella frowned in annoyance and continued on her way. What had gotten into him? It was very rare that Erik was ever in a bad mood and even then, he never lashed out like that either. She continued on until she finally reached the R&D lab and hurried inside hoping that she would find some answers. Instead, she was greeted by even more weirdness.

At the nearest lab table, she found two of her teammates at work. Erin was handing a large device to Lucy and placing it back on a servicing mount with Bharata's help. What made the scene shocking was the appearance of her squadmates. Instead of her long brunette hair, Erin now sported a short pixie cut while the Green Ranger had grown out his own hair into a barely regulation shaggy look. Even on Bharata's forearms, she saw her teammate had apparently gotten some tattoos. Who were these people?

"Ella! Hey! There you are!" Erin called out with a friendly wave, "We were just about to go looking for you. You wanna join Bara and I for lunch?"

"Err… no, thank you," Ella replied while slightly off balance, "Umm, when did you cut your hair Erin?"

The Yellow Ranger blinked in surprise, "What? It's always been like this Ella. Are you okay?"

She wasn't but the Pink Ranger had to keep a straight face and lie, "Yeah… sorry. Go ahead without me. I've got a few tech questions for the eggheads here."

"Suit yourself," Bharata shrugged as he and Erin left the lab.

Once they had departed, Ella hurried over to Lucy and grabbed her by the shoulders, "Oh my gosh! Dr. Beckett, thank God you're here! I need your help! I must be going crazy! I was in the transporter, and there was this Xeno and then…"

She stopped as Lucy began giggle and laugh with an almost unusual exuberance. "Hahaha, oh Ella. You're so funny! That's why I like you… you're such a kidder. Dr. Beckett? That's a new one."

Ella's stomach dropped, not only at that strange statement but also at the strange demeanor of Lucy too. It was a bit odd and unnerving to see Dr. Beckett acting so bubbly and giggly. Based on the new inflection in Lucy's voice, Ella could almost swear it sounded a little ditzy and air-headed as well. Lucy gave a playful nudge and a wink, "You're going to give a humble lab assistant like me a big head Ella. The person you should be flattering is Dr. Julian Wilson. I heard he's almost done with your new personal weapon. Don't ask me how it works though… I just did the detailing on it, teehee."

"Uh yeah… thanks Lucy," Ella said as she slowly backed away and did everything she could to keep from sprinting out of the lab. At this point, there was only one other person who might be able to help at the moment. She had to see her commanding officer, "Tell you what… I'll check in later. I forgot, I have something important to discuss with Martin."

"Oh I'm sure you do," Lucy winked conspiratorially while giving another ditzy giggle... whatever that was all about.

The Pink Ranger quickly walked out of the lab and took a minute to calm her breathing again. She didn't know what was going on, but this was not Atlantis Base and these were not her teammates either. As she stood in the hallway composing herself, she was surprised when Jake passed by and stopped to say hello. Logic told her that he should have been flying with Martin right now, but at the moment, she didn't exactly trust her own sense of reality either. At the very least she was relieved to see that the Silver Ranger didn't look or act any differently.

"Hey Ella, are you all right? You look a little off," Jake said with a kind tone in his voice.

"I'm good Jake. Thanks," she answered, "Just got kinda light headed for a minute. You know… this might sound like an odd thing to say, but I've been having a nutso day. I could probably use a cigarette if you've got one."

Jake frowned slightly, "I don't smoke Ella and neither should you. It's not good for your health, you know."

The Pink Ranger stared at him in shock before hurrying off down the hallway toward the men's officers' quarters. The Silver Ranger could only scratch his head and shrug before walking away in confusion. Ella pushed past several other base personnel who were milling about and then froze in the halls when she caught sight of the Xeno warrior Specter… or rather a ghostly disembodied form of it wandering the corridors.

Even stranger, no one else in the hallway seemed to notice the Xeno at all. Ella didn't know what was going on, but she gave chase and followed the phantom Xeno as it wandered about. Once she neared, she saw the ghostly Xeno pass through some walls and vanish without a trace. Maybe she wasn't completely crazy. Maybe that Xeno had been adversely affected by the transporter just like her? If she could catch that alien and figure out what it was up to, maybe she'd have a chance of setting things right again.

She paused in the hallways and looked around. To her relief, she found herself at the door to Martin's room and pressed the door chime hoping that he could help her. After a moment, she heard him call, "Come in."

She entered his room and found a completely normal looking Red Ranger at his desk finishing some paperwork. He looked up in surprise and gave a pleasant smile, "Ella? This is a surprise. I didn't expect to see you until later today."

"Martin, I'm so sorry to be a bother right now but I really needed to see you. It's an emergency!" she cried in relief, "Everything is going crazy today and I think there might be a Xeno lurking around outside in the base and I need your help."

"Ah… I see," he said with surprising calmness while sitting up from his desk and walking over toward her, "Just slow down there. I think I know exactly what to do."

"You do?" Ella asked in surprise as he walked even closer. She gave a quick gasp as the Red Ranger put his arms around her and drew her in close.

"Captain? I… what are you doing, sir?" she said meekly as Martin raised a hand and gently brushed aside a strand of her hair.

"Making my girlfriend feel better today," he winked playfully, "Trust me. No Xeno's going to get you in here."

Before Ella could respond, he leaned down and kissed her. Her knees buckled for a second before she relaxed and took a selfish moment to enjoy the feeling of a long romantic kiss. After all, she had once fantasized about something like that happening when she had first joined the squad a year ago. When their lips finally parted, Ella struggled to focus again on what she was there for. There had been some transporter anomaly and a Xeno was loose on the base… maybe?

"Wait Martin… we can't do this," Ella said in a breathless gasp as he continued to hold her close and plant a line of soft kisses down her neckline. Damn, it was getting really hard to concentrate now. "I... uh... what about Chrissy?"

He stopped and looked at her in confusion, "Who is Chrissy?"

"You know… your real girlfriend? Who you met at the Olympics in Rome this past summer?" Ella prompted him.

He shook his head in confusion as he let go of Ella, "What? The Olympics weren't in Rome last summer. They were in Greece and I didn't even go to them. None of us did."

Ella recoiled and turned away, trying to make sense of everything going on. Now there was no doubt in her mind that she was trapped in some kind of parallel world… or maybe an alternate timeline? The Pink Ranger gathered her thoughts and asked aloud, "The Xeno-Machina… are we still at war with them? Like, as of right now?"

Martin shook his head, "There hasn't been an attack in over five years. The aliens were driven off into space and never returned."

Ella turned around slowly, "So you're saying we've been on alert status ever since then?"

The Red Ranger nodded and took her by the shoulders, "Ella, what is all this about?"

She took a deep breath and met his gaze, "Captain, I think we need to gather the whole team. This may be hard to believe, but I think it's possible that I might be in the wrong universe. If my suspicions are correct, and I hope they aren't… then everyone on this base might be in grave danger too."


	6. Electromagnetic Boogaloo

**Mission 18: Part 2  
**

"Hold on a second. So what you mean to tell us is that you think you were sent to some kind of alternate reality? Or that you came from one of those universes into ours?" Erin asked as the whole squad, Julian, and General Caldwell sat in the main briefing room of the Command Tower.

"Well... sorta, kinda... yeah," Ella replied with a meek nod toward the incredulous looking Yellow Ranger. When she got no response she looked to General Caldwell. For Ella, she didn't know what was more unnerving... seeing the general with an eyepatch, or watching him sit back and stroke his grey goatee in thought like some kind of supervillain.

Across the table, Dr. Julian Wilson cleared his throat and adjusted his green bowtie before addressing the other Rangers, "I agree, it does sound unusual... but not impossible either. Assuming Lt. Catalano's story is true, then there are scientific theories supporting the possibility... namely those relating to String Theory. I suppose it is possible that this transporter malfunction may have occurred as a result of a subspace disruption caused either by the two of you getting transported together, or by some sabotage by the alien."

"Meaning what?" Erik asked brusquely, "Could you put it into simple English for us here, Doc?"

Julian ignored Erik's grouchy comment and continued, "What I mean is that the transporter likely opened a brief rift in the space time continuum. Assuming the theory that there are infinite timelines or alternate universes out there, that rift might have caused this Ella to fall into our universe and displace our real Ella."

"So how do we fix it?" Ella asked with a worried voice, "Can we fix it?"

Dr. Wilson scratched his chin and thought to himself for a moment before nodding slowly, "I think it may be possible. If we go back and check the transporter logs for when Ella beamed in, then I may be able to reconfigure the particle streams to match the same one she came in on. In a sense, if we recreate the same conditions, the threads of the other timeline will reconnect with this Ella and draw her back so that space-time will be corrected again."

"Okay great... but what about this Xeno that Ella mentioned?" asked Bharata, "If he crossed over here too, then he poses a threat to the whole base."

"Bara is right," Jake agreed, "If Ella says we can't see him or track him, then how can we fight him?"

Caldwell folded his arms, "Is it possible to do some kind of scan on the base? Maybe his stealth mode is giving off some particular energy readings?"

Julian furrowed his brows and thought it over before Ella snapped her fingers, "That's it! I've got it!"

She reached for a hand scanner on the desk and adjusted the settings before handing it to Julian, "If the Xeno and I were caught in the same faulty transporter beam to get here, then there may be some traces of specific residual energy particles on us. If you scan me, then we should look for other readings around here that match mine."

"Ella, that's brilliant! Let's get on it," Martin said while rising up from the table. As Julian took a few scans, the other Rangers prepared to depart from the room, "If that alien is compromising our security here, then we've got no time to lose."

* * *

A little while later, the Pink Ranger walked the hallways with Jake doing sensor sweeps while the other Rangers paired off and scanned other parts of the base. After passing a few guards, Ella and Jake made their way into one of the base's restricted areas where important schematics, mission reports, and data files were stored. As they made their way further in the compound housing important data, they noticed their hand scanners begin to show increased activity. It looked as if something there was matching the readings that Julian had taken of Ella. That could only mean that the Xeno was lurking close by.

The Pink and Silver Rangers exchanged a quiet look and followed their scanners until they reached a large computer terminal where they found the Omega Trooper Specter. The Xeno had decloaked from stealth mode and had hooked itsself up to the central console via a corded jack attached to its arm. Whatever it was doing, it was likely uploading critical operation data about Atlantis Base in order to bring it to its superiors. The two Rangers knew they couldn't let that infiltrator get away and reveal that sensitive information.

"Hold it right there Xeno!" Jake called as he pulled a laser pistol on the invader.

"Jake, be careful! You might hit the computers!" Ella said in concern while the Xeno whipped around and disconnected its datalink.

Jake lowered his aim toward the alien's legs and fired a few shots as Specter charged forward and attacked in the narrow room. Before Jake's blaster shots could connect, it used the last of its stealth power to go incorporeal for a few seconds allowing that shots to go straight through without damage. The two Rangers gave startled gasps as Specter phased back in to reality and collided with them mid-charge. Ella was bowled over backwards and Jake was thrown hard into the narrow side wall. Instead of staying to fight, the Xeno kept running and attempted to make an escape.

The Pink Ranger scrambled back to her feet and turned to her comrade, "Jake, are you okay?"

He had taken a hard fall and hit his head, but he waved it off and slowly sat up while reaching for his morpher to warn the others, "I'll be okay Ella. Go after that Xeno."

Ella took off running back down the corridor and saw that two of the armed guards had been knocked over at the doorway too. Instead of stopping to help them up, she looked around and tried to predict the enemy's next move. They weren't too far from the transporter room so she cut down another hallway and began sprinting to try and head off the Xeno with this shortcut. If she were trying to make a quick escape, that's likely where she'd head to. After storming down the halls, she burst through a side door into the empty transport room just as Specter barged into the terminal from the main doors amid some commotion outside. The intruder quickly closed the doors and punched in a few key codes to lock the entrance before turning to try and make its way onto the transporter itself.

"Hold it right there Xeno! You're not getting away!" Ella called as she barred the alien's path to the transit platform.

Specter readjusted its mechanical hand attachment and converted it into a blaster cannon before firing several bursts at Ella. The Pink Ranger dodged clear with a swift dive sideways before rolling into a crouching position. Without breaking stride, she reached for her morpher and made a leap forward. " _Energize_!"

In a flash of pink light, Ella morphed in midair and came back down on the Xeno with a vicious flying kick to the chest. Specter toppled over backwards from the force of the kick while Ella called her Nova Blaster pistol and took aim. As the Omega Trooper rolled back to its feet, Ella opened fire with her weapon. The bolts struck the Xeno dead on and buffeted it back a few steps, but the lasers scattered away as a result of the enemy's special armor. Ella reached for her morpher again to call her upgraded Nebula plasma pistol but stopped in surprise as nothing happened. She had forgotten that in this new timeline, those weapons hadn't been developed yet.

The Xeno raised its blaster arm again and fired a burst which struck Ella and knocked her backwards. The stunned Ranger skidded on the ground and rolled back to her knees to try and rise but Specter was already charging her. It brought down its other fist which Ella blocked, but the Xeno swept its leg out and tripped her back to the floor. While Ella lay stunned, Specter moved off and walked toward the controls to the transporter. No doubt it was going to use the new data it acquired to program an escape pattern and return to the original timeline with its stolen information.

As Ella picked herself up, she decided to take on a new tactic and called her new baton weapon that she had carried with her. As she activated it, a glowing pink whipcord extended out from the handle with a small clamp at the other end. She smiled and turned the weapon on the Xeno, "An energy whip huh? Very cool. Let's try this thing out!"

The Pink Ranger lashed her whip and snared Specter's blaster arm as it raised the cannon to fire at her. The shot went wide and hit the ceiling as Ella pulled the whip and threw the Xeno away from the console. Specter growled and pulled its arm free of the whip before making a desperate charge for the transit platform. Ella retracted her weapon and struck again using the whip in a different way this time. "Oh no you don't!"

The whip cord hit the Omega Trooper in the back and the clamp at the end latched on to it. As the Xeno struggled to break free toward the platform, Ella yanked back and hit a button on the handle of her weapon. To her amazement, the electronic cable whip activated and began draining electricity from the mechanical alien warrior. Specter slowed down and began to tire, realizing something was seriously wrong now. As it turned around and reached for the clamp at its back, Ella saw that the electric charge had been building in her weapon and now reached a supercharged state. She pushed a switch on the handle and the charge sent a powerful feedback pulse down the cord until it reached the Xeno.

Specter immediately thrashed as the energy which had been drained from it came back in a concentrated burst causing an internal overload to its systems. The Omega Trooper's joints erupted in fountains of sparks and blown wires before the final surge caused the mechanical alien to explode into a cloud of circuitry and metallic parts. A thick cloud of smoke hung in the air of the transporter room as Ella hesitantly lowered her arms and retracted her whip cord. She took a moment to admire the baton handle and give a pleased nod. Not only did her new weapon come in handy, but it was useful in a lot of other ways too, not least of which was stopping that enemy Xeno from escaping with stolen information from the base.

The doors opened and the others all hurried in only to find Ella powering down while standing amidst a mess of blaster scorches on the floor and random body parts of the exploded Xeno warrior. Erik took a look around before giving a mild huff to Bharata, "Well... I guess you were wrong. It looks like she didn't need our help after all."

The Pink Ranger clipped her whip handle back to her belt and smoothed back her hair, "That's not exactly true. Now that the alien is gone... I could still use some help in getting back home to where I belong."

* * *

The next day, Ella and her friends gathered together once more in the transporter room. Julian took his place behind the control console and punched in a few more key commands to do some last minute corrections. While he worked, Ella waited with her teammates and prepared to say her last farewells.

Erin put a friendly arm over her and gave a side hug, "Are you really sure you want to go back to your original timeline? You want to deal with the threat of constant alien attacks and open war going on?"

"Of course I wish I didn't have to fight," Ella said reluctantly, "But I miss my old team. My friends back home need me and so do the people of Earth. Besides, that's why we all became Rangers in the first place, right?"

"Oh I don't know… that alternate universe doesn't sound all that bad," Lucy said while chewing some gum and idly twirling a strand of her hair, "You said I was like a super genius, and the boss of Engineering, didn't you?"

Ella grinned and displayed her new whipcable weapon before clipping it back to her belt, "Well, you were the one who designed this thing and a ton of other cool gadgets… even if in my world you were always kinda uptight about everything too."

"Uptight? Yeah… no, I'm totally not seeing it," Lucy replied with a spacey frown to herself.

At that moment, the transporter powered up and the transit platform began to hum while Julian looked up from the console, "Okay. I've made some corrections to the subspace emitters. If I can properly sync you up with your original transporter configuration, then you should be realigned back into normal space-time."

"I didn't understand a bloody word he said just now," Jake muttered quietly to Bara as the two men gave Ella a friendly wave goodbye.

The Pink Ranger stepped up on the platform and took a moment to mentally prepare herself for the unknown. She couldn't be completely certain that Julian's theory was correct, but she couldn't afford not to try either. He was part of their team and if he was as smart as the original Dr. Beckett, then she'd trust him, just like she had always trusted her. Before Julian could activate the platform, Ella waved her hands and stepped off, "Wait! Wait! Hold on a minute!"

Everyone watched in confusion as she hurried over to where Martin was standing. Before he could say anything, Ella grabbed him by the collar and planted a quick passionate kiss on his lips.

"For luck," she said as she let go of the bewildered Red Ranger and bounded back up the platform. She then gave a thumbs up to Julian, "If I do wind up getting vaporized here, I might as well go out doing something crazy while I'm at it."

Julian activated the teleporter and a bright light lit up the transit pad while Ella was dematerialized and hopefully realigned correctly in the space-time continuum.

* * *

When the light faded, Ella opened her eyes and found herself standing in the same spot atop the base's transit platform. She did a once over and made sure she was intact before looking over in relief to see Lucy sitting behind the transporter control console. The scientist removed her glasses and leaned back exhaling with a big sigh of relief, "Ella! Thank goodness! Are you all right?"

"I think so," the Pink Ranger replied as she hesitantly stepped off the platform and walked back over. "What happened?"

"I think there was some kind of temporary glitch in the network," Lucy said, "You were caught in the pattern buffer for close to a minute and I was just about ready to have a heart attack here… but you were the one requesting an emergency beam-out. What happened over there on your end?"

Ella blinked in confusion, "You don't remember? I… you know what Dr. Beckett? It doesn't matter right now. I'm just glad you're not an idiot anymore."

"I beg your pardon?" Lucy asked in shock.

At that moment, the rest of Ella's squadmates all rushed in to the room and stopped in relief when they saw her safe and sound. Erik skidded to a halt with a look of concern, "Ella? You're okay? Dr. Beckett said you were in trouble and we all rushed here to help as soon as we could."

The Pink Ranger bounded over and joyfully greeted each of her friends, "You all won't believe the weird experience I just had. You were there, and you, and you…"

She reached over and clasped Erik's hands with a squeeze, "Erik! I'm so glad you're back to being nice and thoughtful!

The Blue Ranger scratched his head while Ella went down the line and hugged Erin next, "Erin! You have long beautiful hair again!"

"I uh… thanks?" Erin replied in confusion while Ella came over and placed her hands over Bharata's cheeks.

"Bara! You don't look like a hippy anymore either! Thank goodness!"

The Green Ranger raised his eyebrows in astonishment and spoke through squished cheeks, "Ella? You're kinda freaking me out right now."

The end of the receiving line, Ella saw that Jake and Martin had just returned from the hangers too and they were both still wearing flight suits. She immediately grabbed Jake's shoulders and said "Jake! If for some insane reason I wanted a cigarette right here and now, would you have one on you?"

The Silver Ranger shrugged and reached into an inner pocket of the flight suit before producing a pack of smokes, "Sure luv. You want one for real?"

"What the hell Massey? I can't believe you smuggled those aboard the plane!" Martin frowned as he snatched the carton away and gently smacked the younger Ranger on the head with it. After handing the smokes back to Jake, he turned back to Ella. "All right Catalano, what is going on here? You're acting like a total weirdo right now."

"I know, I know…. I'm sorry Captain. I promise I'll explain everything if you all join me for lunch," she said, "Though I do have something to say to you too… a compliment really."

Martin gave a puzzled look and put his hands on his hips, "Oh? What's that?"

She gave him a playful wink and patted his cheek before walking off toward the door, "If you don't mind me saying, you're a pretty good kisser, sir."

The Red Ranger could only stand in dumbfounded silence while his cheeks grew warm and the rest of the squad started laughing at him. No one knew exactly what that whole thing meant, but they were all sure Ella must have had a hell of story to tell them over their lunch break.

* * *

 **A/N:**  
 **Now that the fun and games have been had for now, we're back to a more serious plot coming up with a focus on Blue. When a deadly new tactic is used by the enemy to harm civilians, it will put Erik's medical knowledge and his determination to the test. Until then! ;)**


	7. Contagion

**Mission 19: Part 1  
**

Lt. Taldyr paced the training room within the Xeno Machina mothership as several of his most loyal and trusted subordinates gathered around to finish with their meeting. The clone soldiers went down the line speaking quietly and reporting their progress. One of the last to report, a sergeant gave a small smile, "We've got five more with us from Gamma unit sir. If we can keep this up and spread the message further, we might be able to start turning whole platoons over at a time."

Taldyr gave a grim nod but raised his hand cautiously, "Best not to jump the gun sergeant. We don't want to jeopardize our network and blow our cover. If we move too fast, we may scare off some of our potential converts and draw attention to ourselves."

The others nodded in understanding and Taldyr couldn't help but feel a little proud of them. Ever since he had begun questioning the brutal and dehumanizing practices that he had his fellow clone soldiers had been subjected to, he had been busy secretly building an underground network to open the eyes of their indoctrinated brothers in arms. Many of the Eidolon clone soldiers would listen intently as Taldyr would call secret meetings and discuss his time on Earth… about how he was shown mercy and compassion by his supposed enemies, the Nova Rangers.

Perhaps it was still too far off to call them friends just yet, but they were certainly allies and people who could be trusted. The Rangers and those around them were good people who had shown him a degree of empathy and trust. Most important was the way they showed that perhaps the Eidolon clones weren't all that different from the Terran humans either. Taldyr had gotten brief glimpses of their music, foods, entertainment, languages, and culture. It was all so foreign, and different, and wonderful. It made him want to put down his own weapons and spend his time living in peace so that he could learn all about Earth instead. By the looks of it, many of the other clones seemed interested in wanting that too. If that meant rising up in an eventual rebellion against their tyrannical Machine Overlord, then so be it.

Once Taldyr adjourned his little meeting of mutineers, he was surprised by the appearance of Warmaster Hellspont who entered the room. The intimidating cyborg general regarded him coolly as he strode forward, "As you were Lieutenant. Come with me."

Taldyr felt a twinge of fear in his chest as he nodded and began following the field commander down the halls toward the science labs. "Warmaster? Is there something you need me to do?"

Hellspont led the clone soldier into the labs and directed him towards an observation chamber which was enclosed by a protective layer of glass. "I want you to watch."

Inside, Taldyr could see several Eidolon soldiers laying on bio beds twitching and moaning in agony. To his horror, it looked like those clones were being used as test subjects for some monstrous experiment. As he walked down the row, he saw that many of test subjects displayed blighted skin. Ugly dark splotches of discoloration covered the subjects and seemed to cause them pain and agony. He turned to the general with wide eyed shock, "Warmaster? What is all this about?"

"We are testing a new means of biological warfare against the Terrans. It seems that long ago their United Nations government had placed a prohibition on the use of chemical and biological weapons. Just because those nations bind themselves to such a foolish charter of outdated rules, doesn't mean we have to abide by them."

Taldyr felt his stomach drop at the sight of the tortured subjects here and thought of the Rangers falling victim too, "This plague looks terrible."

"Indeed it is Taldyr," Hellspont laughed, "Our scientists have developed a viral toxin called Necrosis which we can use. It's highly dangerous to organic beings and causes a slow agonizing death as their cells degrade and rot away."

Taldyr kept a straight face, "I take it the drones and regular Xeno forces will be immune due to their mechanical implants?"

Hellspont nodded, "That is correct. We hope that by unleashing this on the Terrans, it will weaken them enough and force them to submit."

Taldyr remained silent in horror, not only pained at the sight of some of his clone brothers being used as guinea pigs, but also at the horrific thought of virus bombing planet Earth too. Before he could ask, Hellspont answered his question, "We will begin by delivering the toxin through the Overlord's newest Omega Trooper Typhon."

As he spoke the warrior's name, the newest Omega Trooper emerged from a nearby hatch. The warrior was clad in thick black suit of steel power armor. It's helmet was fashioned to look like that of a bleached emotionless skull save for two glowing purple lens eyes within the sockets. Along both of its arms were tubes and weapon attachments which looked to be attached to a mechanism at its back. At the back of the Xeno were several tubes of unknown churning gases and substances which radiated out in somewhat of a fan or peacock tail pattern.

Typhon came to a rest before Hellspont and stood at attention as the Warmaster looked him over in satisfaction. As he turned back to Taldyr, the Warmaster laughed, "Soon, the viruses that are being incubated in our warrior will be let loose on humanity. We'll begin on a smaller city and once we're finished testing the plague, the larger cities will crumble next. Typhon,make ready with your virus bombs. You will be deployed as soon as possible."

The Omega Trooper gave a salute and marched out the door leaving Taldyr feeling sicker than he ever had before.

* * *

The cold dreary weather of late winter had finally given way as the milder temperatures of early spring came to Atlantis Base. On one particularly warm and sunny weekend, Erik Dobermann Jr. sat at a bench playing on a portable piano keyboard. It was a beautiful morning in the West End's gardens and park and he decided to take advantage of it. The modern fountains had been cleaned and had just come to life while grass and flowers were beginning to bloom on the lawns and areas set aside for conservation. Nearby on one of the lawns, Bharata, Jake, Ella, and Erin all threw a frisbee back and forth to each other while making a lot of noise. Meanwhile, Martin and Lucy sat together reclining on folding chairs while listening to the pleasant sounds of the piano concerto filling the air. When Erik finished playing, Lucy clapped her hands in appreciation, "Erik, that was beautiful! Mozart, right?"

"Good ears Dr. Beckett. Concerto Number 21 in C Major," the Blue Ranger smiled proudly as he lifted his hands from the keyboard. "I'd be a failure of a German if I didn't have any Mozart in my repertoire."

"I thought Mozart was an Austrian," Martin teased gently as he put down the book he was reading.

"Still counts," Erik countered while raising a playful finger and giving a laugh, "Germany technically didn't exist at that time. In my mind, he's still one of ours."

As the other Rangers finished their frisbee game and came back over to rejoin the others, Lucy smiled, "Erik, as glad as I am that you joined the military, it's really too bad you didn't become a concert pianist instead. You play brilliantly."

Erik took a grateful little bow and began to dabble idly on the keys, "Oh I don't know Dr. B., maybe I can still be both. Maybe if I can convince the doctors in the medical ward, I can set up and play for people in the base recovery rooms. They say that supposedly listening to Mozart is good for babies before they're born. Maybe it'll help our wounded soldiers here recover faster too."

"Worth a shot," Ella said as she cheerfully plopped down beside him and started playing chopsticks on the keyboard, "I'm not sure I've ever heard of a baby being delivered here on the base anyway."

"Well, it certainly gives a new meaning to the expression Healing Hands," Jake quipped earning a round of laughter from everyone present.

Their moment of relation and merriment was suddenly interrupted as the Rangers' morphers sounded and General Caldwell's voice was heard on the comms, "Rangers, sorry to disturb you rec time but I'm going to need you all to report to the tower. We might have a situation."

"We're on our way General," Martin answered as the others got up to report for duty.

Erik simply gave a sigh and pounded out the opening stinger of Beethoven's 5th Symphony before packing up and joining his comrades.

* * *

Later that day, the squad gathered together for a conference in General Caldwell's briefing room. Once they were seated, Caldwell brought up a holographic display of the globe. "Rangers, I'll get right to it. Sensors have picked up the possible energy signature of a Xeno entry pod in Europe. He magnified the display to show the trajectory of the object and a red dot near central Germany. "The Xenos have gotten better at disguising their pods' energy readings to mimic the entries of regular meteorites. We believe the object in question had landed somewhere near the small city of Frankfurt, Germany."

Erik immediately rose to his feet, "I'm ready to go General. If there's trouble…"

Caldwell raised a hand to calm him down, "Easy Captain Dobermann. We don't know for certain if there is a Xeno present. So far it's been eight hours and no problems have been reported. I just want Nova Squad to investigate and do a routine sweep of the area."

Erik nodded and sat down, "Yes sir."

"I understand you're worried that it's your home country and…"

"It's not that sir," Erik interrupted, "Well… no entirely. I have a cousin who lives in Frankfurt. Her name is Heidi and she's nine months pregnant. I'm just worried about her and her child, so I apologize for being so hasty."

Caldwell gave a kind hearted nod, "I understand Captain. Would you mind being given a modified assignment? Perhaps keeping watch closer to the city while the others do their recon sweep?"

Erik blinked in surprise, "You mean that? I… if it's okay with the rest of the squad. I don't want to be given any special treatment here."

"It's no trouble," Martin chimed in while putting a supportive hand on his friend's shoulder, "Keep an eye on your family. We shouldn't be too long anyway."

The others gave nods of agreement causing the Blue Ranger to reply with a grateful smile, "Thank you everyone. I appreciate it." What do you say we get our battle-rattle together and mount up?"

* * *

Some time later, Nova Squad beamed in to the city of Frankfurt. When they arrived, they found themselves in a busy open air plaza near the city's downtown. By the looks of it, the area seemed to have a rustic look and was styled with the architecture of the classic German villages from the High Middle Ages.

"Nice place," Erin commented with a grin, "All we need now is a polka band and some guys in lederhosen walking around."

Erik rolled his eyes and led the way forward, "This place is called the Romerberg. It's part of the city's Old Town district. Now according to Caldwell, our military contact should be nearby so you can arrange for a transport to Schloss Air Base to the east."

"How about you? Are you going to be okay here by yourself?" Ella asked curiously.

"Oh, I think I'll manage just fine here," Erik laughed as he pointed over to a pretty young woman who was quickly waddling across the plaza to meet the Rangers. She was a true Aryan German, tall with blue eyes and blonde hair tied up in braided pigtails. Even more obvious was the fact that she was pregnant… very pregnant by the looks of it.

Erik immediately came over and put his arms around her and the two gave each other big hugs and kisses on the cheeks. "Heidi! You crazy girl! You didn't have to come out here to greet me! Just look at you!"

Erik's cousin gave him a playful look and slapped his arm, "Look at me? And just what is that supposed to mean?"

"It means you look great," Erik laughed in reply as he gently patted her belly, "You should have waited at home and rested so that I could come by and see you."

"Well, I've got a tiny human in here who couldn't wait to meet its uncle," Heidi said with a good natured smile as she hugged her cousin again. "Welcome home."

The other Rangers exchanged quiet smiles with each other. If Heidi was this warm and friendly, then it was clear that the affable disposition was a family trait.

"Everyone, I'd like you all to meet my cousin Heidi," Erik said leading her over to the Rangers.

Everyone took a moment to exchange greetings before Erin and Ella came over to excitedly congratulate Heidi on her coming baby. Erin squeezed Heidi's hand and took a look at her midsection, "When are you expecting?"

"Oh, I'm set to pop any day now," Heidi chuckled before turning a little more serious, "But I hope the fact that all of you are here doesn't mean too much trouble either. If all goes well, I'd love to have you all over for dinner at some point."

"We'd be happy to accept the invitation," Martin replied with a polite smile, "But we've got a little job to do here first. We'll just be on a routine patrol and hopefully back within a day or so."

"The Captain is right," Erik said reassuringly, "I'll be looking after you here in the city too so you have nothing to worry about."

"Everyone? As much as I'd love to stay and chat, we should probably get going soon and find our contact, yeah?" Jake interjected.

Heidi smiled, "Ah… not to worry Sergeant. I think I can help you with that. Wilhelm?"

Everyone turned in surprise to see another UNAF officer approach them. He was a handsome young German man with a buzz cut and dark brown eyes. A quick glance at his uniform told them he was a Lieutenant in the Army branch. He strode up with a smile and saluted the other Rangers before extending a warm hand to shake Erik's. "Erik, it's been too long. I'm happy to see you… and you made Captain? Congratulations!"

"Good to see you too Wil," Erik replied returning the salute and handshake. "Everyone, this is Heidi's husband and one of my in-laws. Lt. Wilhelm Brandt."

Wilhelm smiled and turned to Martin, "I've been assigned to be your liaison here and take you to Schloss Base Captain Sterling. Whenever you and your team are ready."

Martin chuckled, "Thank you Lieutenant. It seems like we'll be in good hands here. Erik, you'll be okay?"

"Yes sir," the Blue Ranger answered with a casual salute, "Good luck. Hopefully it'll be a quiet patrol for once."

"Thanks. I hope so too," Martin said before returning the salute and heading off with the others.

Once they were gone, Erik turned to his cousin and offered his arm, "So, have you had any weird cravings from the pregnancy lately? Because right now, I could really go for some fresh bratwurst and strudel, what do you say?"

* * *

As early evening began to set in over the land, Lt. Brandt and the rest of Nova Squadron pulled up in a large jeep to the edge of the UNAF airbase located just outside the city to the east. They had traveled through some wooded roads and it looked like the surrounding area just outside the airstrips were heavily forested as well. As they crossed the security checkpoint, Martin noted the terrain and mused aloud, "Kind of an odd location for an airbase. You would think all the tall tress and forests would be a little bit of a hazard for the fighter planes landing here."

"Ah, that's just it. There isn't a lot of fighter traffic here Captain," Wilhelm answered as he drove the jeep to the parking lots at the other side of the complex, "This base is more used by helicopters, hovercrafts, and Marauder gunships… you know, things that are all about vertical takeoffs. We're more of a refueling and refitting station, but I think they should be able to provide you guys with a chopper if you need one for your patrol tomorrow."

Bharata gave a nod and turned to Martin, "Captain, even with an airship, it might be tough seeing through all these trees. I'll get to work on a search plan and review the topography tonight. Hopefully it'll help us be more efficient on the ground."

As the team disembarked and began to make their way towards the barracks, they stopped when they heard a commotion from the edge of some of the landing strips. In the orange early evening sunlight, the Rangers turned to see a large figure approaching. It had apparently smashed through some of the fencing and left a trail of chaos and destruction down one of the landing pads. The pavement was crushed and scorched while crates of supplies were toppled. In the light, they saw that the figure looked to be a Xeno-Machina warrior, most likely another Omega Trooper. Unlike this others, this one was larger and more intimidating. Its heavy black power armor cast a menacing gleam in the light while the menacing visage of a white skull helmet made the warrior look like Death incarnate. As the warrior advanced, several large tubes of glowing chemicals fanned out from its back, churning and swirling about in their containers.

"What is that thing?" Wilhelm gasped in fear before Ella pushed him toward the barracks, "Get to cover! We'll take care of this guy!"

A small team of airmen from the base's security detail scrambled out to intercept the intruder while hastily arming themselves with flak vests and laser rifles. They quickly formed up into a firing line and took aim before their sergeant gave the order to let loose.

The UNAF troops fired a withering volley of small arms fire at the Xeno but it was to no avail. The las bolts merely deflected away harmlessly and the alien walked right through with a few insignificant scorches on its armor. Before they could regroup, the Xeno Typhon raised one of its weaponized arms and fired a powerful jet of purple colored chemical gas which knocked over the Terran soldiers and left them lying the ground in stunned writhing heaps.

After dispatching the airmen and walking through their defense line, the Xeno stopped when it saw the five Rangers standing in its way. In a monotone digitized voice it spoke out, _"Nova Rangers. I am Warrior Tyhpon. Surrender now or prepare to be eliminated."_

"The only one who's going to get eliminated is you, bone-face," Jake retorted as he reached for his morpher with he others. In a unified call, they hit their activation buttons and disappeared in a curtain of colorful light, " _Energize_!"

Typhon waited a moment before seeing the five Rangers charge forward armed with their own battle suits. The Xeno adjusted the settings of its plague canisters and readied its weapons. The deadly new Necrosis Virus was going to start spreading to all of Germany and these Rangers would be the very first victims.


	8. Quarantine

**Mission 19: Part 2  
**

Typhon brandished a heavy maul type weapon with an electric disruptor field at the head and deflected the opening attacks of Martin and Bharata. The two Rangers had called their energy swords in midair and tried to bring them down in a fierce hammering blow. The moment the Xeno warded them off, it was pelted by a barrage of plasma bolts from Erin, Ella, and Jake who had taken up sniping positions on the flank. After shaking off the minor damage of their blaster pistols, Typhon turned one of its weapon arms around and returned fire with a barrage of its own energy bolts to force the other attackers to roll clear.

Jake used the momentum of his roll and changed direction. He leapt forward converting his personal weapon to blade mode, hoping to catch his enemy off guard. Despite its bulkier build, the Xeno warrior raised its maul just in time and blocked Jake's surprise slash, then parried the Silver Ranger aside. While Nova Squad regrouped for another pass, they were halted as Typhon began to laugh and pull a detonator device from its side. _"Resisting me is hopeless Rangers. This city of yours is already doomed."_

Typhon pushed the detonator and a signal was sent back to its hidden drop pod deep in the woods. The moment the pod received the transmission, a large projectile launcher which had been built-in, activated and fired a rocket propelled object into the skies. Moments later, the Rangers all looked up and saw a projectile drum roughly the size of a garbage can arc over the treeline and make its decent over the eastern skies of Frankfurt. The rocket finally flared out and the object detonated into a large purple gas cloud which rained down and began dispersing over the population center.

"What the hell was that?" Erin cried in alarm as she watched the strange cloud descending over several districts of the city.

 _"Nothing can stop the Necrosis virus now Rangers… not even you,"_ Typhon said while re-configuring its chemical canisters on its back.

"Did that thing just say virus?" Ella exclaimed in horror, "As in bio-weapons?"

"It must have been some kind of dirty bomb," Martin growled as he turned back to the Xeno, "You're going to show us how to stop this, right now!"

The Xeno scoffed at the Red Ranger and raised its weapon arms, _"The Necrosis will not stop for anyone… not even you!"_

The alien fired a corrosive viscous liquid from one its canisters which sprayed the ground around the Rangers before Typhon fired a few blaster shots at the spill. The explosive chemical reaction which resulted, engulfed the five Nova Rangers. The sudden violent explosion rocked them all and threw them to the ground hard. While they lay stunned and disoriented, their Rangers suits fizzled out and powered down, leaving them vulnerable. Typhon immediately took its opportunity to strike and launched a smaller canister from its back. The grenade rolled by the downed Rangers and burst open, engulfing them in a toxic purple gas cloud as well.

Typhon began to stride forward triumphantly while the five humans choked and sputtered until it was stopped by a blaster shot to the chest. The Xeno growled as it spied Martin struggling to rise his knees while holding his plasma pistol in defiance. Despite being dazed and unmorphed, Ella and Erin followed suit and called their own personal weapons in desperation. The Pink Ranger lashed her new whip out and snared one of the alien's legs, halting it just long enough for Erin to take aim with her sonic cannon. She set the gun to full power and let loose a sonic wave which tore up some of the ground and shattered some of the glass windows in the surrounding buildings of the airbase. The soundwave slammed into the Xeno and sent it flying back several yards while allowing the Nova Rangers to recover from their coughing fit and regain their footing.

Typhon shook off the blast and rose back its feet. It gave a growl and expelled a smokescreen of gas before retreating from the battlefield. It may have been at a technical advantage, but the Xeno had taken some damage from the sonic cannon and needed to regenerate. It decided it would be better to let the Rangers and the people of Frankfurt suffer a while. Part of the Omega Trooper's mission was to test the virus first anyway. Eventually the Rangers would grow too weak to defend themselves and that would be when Typhon would launch the next strike.

"Damn! The bugger just cut and run!" Jake growled as he used his sharp eyes to try and find any trace of the escaped Xeno.

At that point, Lt. Brandt and some of the other people on base began to exit the safety of their buildings when the sounds of the fighting died down. Erin walked over and bent down to check up on the fallen airmen who had tried to help fight Typhon. She studied them for a moment before calling to the Red Ranger, "These men are alive Martin, but they don't look well. That Typhon character must have hit the troops with some kind of virus here… maybe that Necrosis thing? I'm seeing some dark patches of skin discolorations already. They need help sir."

"We also got hit by a concentrated cloud of that stuff," Bharata said in concern as he examined himself and tried to keep from panicking completely. "We should be careful too."

Lt. Brandt approached slowly and called out, "Is everything okay Rangers? Can we help?"

The Red Ranger waved the rest of the base personnel off, "Keep your distance Lieutenant. I think we've been contaminated with some kind of dangerous germ or toxin. The Xeno's already exploded a dirty bomb over the city too. We need you guys to start evacuating people to safe sectors and calling in this incident to the UNAF. Erin, I want you call Erik. Warn him of this situation and tell him to stand by. I'm going to try and radio Caldwell myself."

* * *

Meanwhile, the eastern half of Frankfurt was in a chaotic uproar as people desperately tried to flee from the toxic fallout raining down from above. Amid the panic, Erik hurried into a taxi with his cousin Heidi and urged the driver to get moving. The two had been eating an early dinner at a restaurant when they saw the unidentified explosive go off overhead and startle the city. While he was uncertain if the whole city was under attack, Erik didn't want to take any chances and decided to get Heidi and her baby to safety. She mentioned that she and Wilhem owned a townhouse on the other side of the city and Erik thought that might be a good place to hunker down and figure out what to do next.

At that moment, Erik heard his morpher chime followed by Erin's voice calling him. He immediately answered, "Talk to me Erin. What's going on?"

"The situation's not great Erik," the Yellow Ranger replied, "If you and Heidi have a safe place to go to on the western end of the city, I'd say get moving. That blast that just went off over the city? We think that might have been some kind of virus bomb."

"What?" Erik exclaimed in horror, "Like anthrax or poison gas?"

"We're not sure yet," Erin said, "As soon as we arrived at Schloss Base, we got attacked by a Xeno Omega Trooper. He's packing some kind of plague weaponry by the name of Necrosis."

Erik looked to his cousin sitting beside him in the backseat of the taxi and he saw her give a worried look and take his hand. He took a steadying breath, "Okay, let's try to find a safe place to regroup and figure out what to do next."

"Negative Erik. We're going to need you to be in charge of organizing as many civilians as you can into safe sterile areas tonight," Martin cut in over the comms.

Erik frowned in confusion, "Sir? What about you guys?"

"We believe we've been contaminated by the virus too. We can't risk infecting you too, especially if it means that you might be the only one strong enough to fight if that Xeno attacks later."

"What?" Erik exclaimed again in growing horror. He felt sick to his stomach as he was overcome by deep concern for his friends, guilt at not being there to fight alongside them, and anger at that Xeno for hurting them.

"I know you're worried Erik. We are too. But we need you to be strong right now," Ella chimed in with a gentle voice. Lt. Brandt is on his way home to see Heidi and he said you're welcome to stay with them until this is all sorted out."

"Right..." Erik grimaced in reply, "In the mean time, you five had better try checking in with a hospital in the east end of the city. But you might need someone to speak German for you and..."

"I think we can manage," Erin answered on her morpher, "My German's a little rusty, but I think it'll get the job done."

"For all our sakes, I hope you're right."

* * *

The next day, Erik made his way out the Brandts' townhouse to go visit his comrades. After helping direct crowds of civilians to underground safe zones, he had spent an almost sleepless night worried about the virus attack and the conditions of his fellow Rangers. If that Omega Trooper was still running loose, that would only complicate matters further. After the panic of yesterday, the mood of the city was tense. A large number of people had safely fled to the western half of the city before the virus cloud had fallen but Frankfurt had now essentially become divided. Those unfortunate people who were exposed to this so called Necrosis virus had been restricted from crossing into the safe districts for fear of spreading the unknown disease. In a strange way, Erik couldn't help but think of another unfortunate instance in German history where its own capital city of Berlin and the rest of the country had been essentially divided during the Cold War of the twentieth century.

Upon reaching the blockade line where local police and UNAF troops stood guard, Erik was allowed passage to the contaminated east half of the city. As an added precaution, he morphed into his Ranger suit to protect himself from exposure. To those infected citizens who were trying to put on a brave front and go about their daily business as usual, the sight of a fully morphed Power Ranger walking down the street in broad daylight still seemed a bit absurd given the circumstances.

When he finally reached the hospital he was looking for, he saw that it was crowded and there were lots of fretful civilians milling about. Doctors, nurses, and hospital staff were all covered up and dressed in full anti-infection gear trying to keep order and treat people who were suffering acute symptoms of the plague. The Blue Ranger was led to a room where the five Nova Rangers had been put under observation. He opened the door and looked inside with relief seeing that they all seemed to be doing fairly well so far.

"Erik! You're here!" Ella and Erin both exclaimed coming over to greet him with a hug, "We didn't expect you'd come this way."

Erik looked over to Martin and shrugged since his face was obscured by his helmet and visor, "Sorry for not calling ahead. I took precautions and decided to come help. I'm a medic after all. My place is on the frontlines looking after my team."

"You should have listened to me and stayed clear, but I'm still glad you came," Martin nodded as he walked over and firmly shook Erik's hand. "Thank you."

While Bharata worked to set up a laptop computer in the room and connect with Atlantis Base, Erik began to examine his teammates and check their vital signs. "People in the streets are already freaking out over this virus. We're still not sure how contagious it is, or how it works. How are you guys feeling?"

Ella sat back down on a bed and twiddled her fingers, "Honestly? Not too bad. I woke up today feeling a little tired and the doctors here said our temperatures are up a little... but that's it."

Erin idly paced near the windows and looked out to the quiet streets below. She was trying to put on a positive face, but it was clear she had some fears and misgivings too, "Ah well... this isn't the first time I've been stricken with a life threatening condition. If was able to survive my brain almost getting scrambled by that Conduit helmet, I'm sure the old luck o' the Irish will pull me through again."

"Well if you don't mind, be sure to spread a little bit o' that Irish luck around for the rest of us lass," Jake called over trying to buoy everyone's spirits with a little levity too.

Finally, Bharata got the computer connection going and put in a video call to Atlantis Base on a priority channel. As they gathered around, they were greeted by the concerned faces of General Caldwell and Dr. Beckett. The Rangers had already made a report to him the other day about what happened in their battle with Typhon, but the general insisted on regular check ins. Caldwell studied the faces of his young charges and wrinkled his features in worry, "All of you are still feeling well?"

"Yes sir. Maybe not a hundred percent, but all of us are are still on our feet," Martin answered, "Any news about what's going?"

Caldwell frowned to himself again and nodded, "International relief aid is being organized as we speak. For the time being, UNAF forces are establishing a quarantine line around the city of Frankfurt so that whatever this Necrosis is, it won't get out."

"If that's true, then that means that the Omega Trooper Typhon will also be blocked here as well. That's a small positive I guess," Bharata added. "In the mean time, what should we do about this plague?"

Caldwell folded his hands, "In the mean time, the cordon lines will remain in Frankfurt to prevent further infection of the populace. There are medical experts who are jumping on this and volunteering to help, but I'm not sure it'll be enough right now. A few other hospitals in the city have reported that a small number of people who had contracted some acute cases have already died."

The Rangers fell silent at that grim news. No one knew exactly how fast acting this virus would spread, or what the extent of its harmful effects would be, but it already sounded serious.

"From what we can tell, the bio-weapon is tuned toward causing a weakening of the immune system followed by cellular degradation."

"You mean like... having our body systems slowly fail and then beginning to rot?" Bharata exclaimed in horror.

"All I can tell you is that it's like a virulent and extremely deadly version of Bubonic Plague."

Erik pounded his gloved fist in his hand with determined resolve, "I'm not going to let my team just sit here and die General. If we don't stop this virus here, it may threaten all of Germany and the rest of Europe... and Sarah... there has to be something we can do."

Caldwell thought things over before nodding, "There may be one thing you can do Erik. We know that Typhon is still lurking somewhere in the eastern woods and that the Xeno has access to a virus bomb delivery system. If you would be able to locate it and destroy it, that will help prevent the enemy from threatening any more civilian targets from long range."

"So take the fight to the Xenos huh?" Erik asked nervously, "If that's what it takes..."

"General, how is Erik going to be able to stand against that alien all by himself?" Ella asked with a worried expression, "Typhon was heavily armed and armored. The five of us were barely enough to fight him to a draw."

"Leave that to me Ella," Lucy replied over the video call, "I've been developing a new weapon for Erik that should have the size and firepower to take down a heavily protected target like Typhon. If you can, I'd like you to transport back here so Julian and I can give you a quick introduction."

Erik nodded, "Of course Dr. B... so like, what are we talking here? Some kind of bazooka? Or maybe a big Zweihander blade?"

Lucy gave a cryptic smile and shook her head gently, "Not quite. I got a little inspiration from a German weapon created between World Wars 1 and 2. You'll see when you return to the base. I think you'll be pleased."

Martin crossed his arms and thought things out, "All right, that leaves only one other issue. Even with an awesome new weapon, how is Erik supposed to track down this Xeno in the woods... all by himself?"

Lucy raised a hand to allay his fears, "Don't worry Martin. Based on our sensors and datalogs of the blast along with the gas dispersal patterns yesterday, we can calculate the trajectory of the Xeno's ballistic weapon launcher. It should give us the rough location where that dirty bomb was launched."

Eric put a reassuring hand on his commander's shoulder, "Just leave it to me Captain. I promise I won't let the team down. For now, it's best if you and the others just stay here and rest. You're going to need all your strength if you and the others are going to fight this disease."

Jake gave a thumbs up and tried to put on a brave smile, "Right then. We'll do our best to hold out in the mean time big guy. Just hurry back soon and bring a cure for the rest of us, yeah?"

"I promise," Erik nodded as they ended the video call and Erik departed the hospital ward. The Blue Ranger stood outside the hospital room for a moment and took a deep breath. First things first. He had to meet with Dr. Beckett, and then get some help from Wilhelm if we was going to have any hope of stopping that Xeno. He only hoped he'd have enough time because with the threat of the Necrosis quickly growing in Frankfurt, he feared he was already at a major disadvantage.


	9. No Man's Land

**Mission 19: Part 3  
**

The doors to the Atlantis Base R&D lab swished open as Erik Dobermann Jr. made his way inside and looked around. He had made a quick stop back to headquarters and didn't want to waste any time. Every hour he was away, his teammates grew sicker and the city of Frankfurt became more vulnerable to attack by enemy forces. He strode inside the sterile lab and came to the workstation of Dr. Beckett and her assistant Julian Wilson. Both of them greeted him with subdued smiles and nods since they knew the situation had taken a dire turn.

"Thanks for stopping in Erik. I know you want to get back to the frontline so I won't keep you long," Lucy said.

Erik gave a grim nod, "It's okay Dr. Beckett. If you've got something that can help us right now, then it's important I be here too."

Julian tapped his shoulder and led the Blue Ranger over to a table where a large object lay covered under a protective cover. "This way Captain. Right over here."

Lucy walked over and removed the cover to proudly display her newest custom weapon. Erik looked down on the table to see an object that on first glance looked like some kind of huge mace. There was a long heavy pipe-like body that led to a thick somewhat oblong shaped head at the top. "Captain Dobermann, I present to you your new weapon. This is the Panzerfaust-Mark 3."

Erik carefully picked up the weapon and examined it, "Thanks... what is it exactly? It looks like a big mace, or is it some kind of club?"

Lucy smiled and took the weapon with both hands carefully hefting it. For a big burly soldier like Erik, he could handle the weapon easily, but to a regular scientist who hadn't done as much strength training, it was a bit more difficult to carry. "This is a dual purpose weapon Captain. You can use this Pazerfaust as a heavy two handed mace right now, but it can also double as a powerful anti-armor grenade launcher as well."

The Blue Ranger studied the weapon some more, "Panzerfaust... that means 'armor fist.' You said this was a German inspired weapon?"

Lucy nodded, "Yes. It was originally created as a tank killing weapon during the early 1900's. I decided to give it a little bit of a modern twist."

"At first we were considering some kind of weapon based on the Schwerer Gustav," Julian added excitedly, "It was a giant artillery cannon mounted to a humongous armored railway train… but then we decided that would be way too impractical."

Lucy chuckled and turned to Erik, "If you don't mind me saying, it's been a couple hundred years since our two countries have gone to war against each other but the weapons you Germans come up with sometimes… I can't help but be impressed and terrified all at the same time."

Erik grinned and hefted his new weapon, "Thanks again Dr. Beckett. Julian. I'll put this thing to good use. Now I should probably…"

He was cut off as General Caldwell interrupted on his Nova Morpher, "Captain Dobermann? Dr. Beckett? We're receiving an encrypted transmission from the moon and it's directed to you. You both might want to turn on a video screen."

The three friends in the lab exchanged a look before Lucy walked over and turned on a computer monitor to take the call. To everyone's surprise, they saw the face of the clone soldier Taldyr on the other end. He looked to be in a secret passageway of the Xeno moon base and he quickly looked over his shoulder to make sure no one else was listening. "Greetings friends."

"Taldyr? I… this is a surprise," Erik exclaimed in shock, "What's going on?"

The allied Xeno glanced about quickly and spoke in a hushed voice, "I'm afraid I don't have much time. I only have a few minutes to broadcast on this signal. It's about the Necrosis virus that's being dropped on Earth."

"Your friend Typhon has already dropped a bomb on one of our cities," Lucy said, "People are getting sick and starting to die. Is there any way you can help us?"

Taldyr nodded, "I believe so. Tell me, may I speak to Erin Reilly? Or Captain Sterling?"

"Both of them have been put in quarantine along with the other Rangers," Erik said grimly, "They've been infected with the plague."

Taldyr's expression fell and he gave an almost apologetic look, "I see… I'm sorry to hear that. I only pray that what I have here might be able to help."

He picked up a small data-stick and showed it to the screen, "Warmaster Hellspont was helping to oversee the creation of the Necrosis virus, but I also found out that he was having some of my clone brothers and sisters used as test subjects."

"That's awful," Julian said sympathetically.

Taldyr nodded and continued, "The virus is intended to weaken and kill the majority of your population centers in hopes that it will force your Earth government to capitulate. What I have here in this data-stick is information for creating a vaccine. Our scientists developed it in order to inoculate our clone troops if necessary. I believe this data I stole from the lab may be of use to you because we clones are genetically very close to you humans. If the vaccine works for us, then it should work for you as well."

"Taldyr… you're taking a big risk for us by doing this… thank you," Erik said in gratitude.

The clone gave a ghost of a smile, "We are allies in this war Erik Dobermann. If we clones here want to take back our freedom and dignity from the Overlord, then we're going to need to make new friends in order to do it. You and the Rangers have shown me that both of our kinds can find common ground that way. You are a healer who wants to protect the lives of his comrades. I suppose I am doing the same now, but in my own way. Standby to receive my transmission."

Lucy watched as a large digital file downloaded into her system before the signal faded. As the transmission ended, Taldyr gave a quiet nod, "I wish you luck Ranger. Until the time is right, I will be here working for your team."

The transmission cut off and Lucy saved the data in a safe backup folder, "I've got it Erik. Let's take this to Caldwell and…"

"You and Julian go ahead Doc," Erik said while heading for the doors, "Your job will be to help create a vaccine and save our friends. My job is to track down a Xeno in Germany, but I'm going to need to call in a little help while I'm here."

* * *

"You know, I had some reservations about walking into a bio-hazard zone but I've gotta say… I'm glad I finally got a chance to visit Germany. It seems like a nice place." Trooper Diego Madrigal of Mexico said as he rode in a small airborne UNAF transport craft.

The troop carrier cruised low over the green woodlands just outside the eastern hinterlands of Frankfurt while Erik Doberman looked out the windows idly. He had already morphed into his battle suit and took a moment to inspect the assault team he had assembled to aid him in this operation. "I promise once we stop the plague here, you'll see just how nice the country really is Trooper."

The Blue Ranger glanced over to the American leader of the infantry squad who had volunteered to come along to help him, "Thanks again for coming to help Lt. Lewis. I really appreciate you guys watching my back out here."

Clarissa Lewis adjusted the filter of her gasmask that she and her team wore and gave a thumbs up, "Our pleasure Captain. Nova Squad has done a lot of the heavy lifting in past battles. This is the least we can do to help."

Trooper Marina LeFevre of France gave a sigh and fiddled with her laser rifle, "Still, you do realize we've never gone head to head against a Xeno field commander, right?"

"You just leave that guy to me Trooper," Erik said with a reassuring nod, "Your squad knows what to do otherwise."

Clarissa's second in command, a Canadian corporal by the name of James Campbell readied a rucksack of C-4 explosives, "Captain Dobermann is right Marina. Just think… of all the squads stationed at Atlantis Base, he chose us to help out our A-team."

Erik smiled and walked over to the front of the aircraft. His in-law Wilhelm was sitting near the cockpit and supervising while the pilot was busy flying everyone to their destination. Wilhelm turned and gave Erik a nod before speaking to him in German, "We're getting close Captain. ETA is about five minutes."

The Blue Ranger put a hand on Lt. Brandt's shoulder, "Good. How are you holding up Wil?"

Wilhelm grimaced and glanced out the window, "Honestly? I'm afraid Erik. I'm afraid of what the Xeno is capable of, and I'm afraid of that virus spreading in the city… especially to Heidi and my baby."

"We won't let that happen," Erik said with resolve, "As we speak, my friends back at Atlantis Base are working on a cure and they should be close. They're going to do their job right now so all we can do is focus on doing ours."

"Yes sir," Wilhelm answered, feeling a little more encouraged now.

* * *

When they finally reached the drop zone, Erik and the rest of Clarissa's squad rappelled down into a wooded clearing. Once they reached the ground, the transport took off and moved to circle the area, waiting for their cue to return and pick up the team. Clarissa took one look at her hand scanner and pointed the way, "Come on everyone, the Xeno pod should be about half a click south from here."

Erik led the troops through the dense woodlands until they reached another clearing where Typhon's large drop pod lay. Just as they had expected, a large missile launcher type contraption had been rigged to the craft and a handful of clone troopers milled about, helping to guard the area. The humans spread out in the brush and considered their plan of attack, even as the Omega Trooper Typhon made its way outside, fresh from regeneration.

"Sir, should we just go all out at try to blow that pod up from range?" Clarissa asked in a hushed whisper.

Erik shook his head, "No. There are barrels of Necrosis toxin loaded on that device. If that pod blows up and goes sky high, there's no telling just how big the resulting virus cloud is going to be. For all we know, it could blanket the whole region."

"Are you suggesting a surgical type of a strike then?" Diego asked.

The Blue Ranger chewed his lip and weighed his options. He was falling back to his own special forces training and then considered for a moment what his own commander on the Ranger team would do. He finally replied, "We'll go with a diversion plan and keep it simple. We'll use textbook flanking maneuvers to assault that fixed position. Once I draw the attention of the Xeno leader, you guys flank the clones and disable the firing systems on the pod."

Clarissa and her team disappeared into the brush and Erik waited until he heard her hushed voice on the comms, "We're in position."

The Blue Ranger nodded and rose from cover to advance out into the open. He pulled his plasma pistol out and fired a few shots to draw the enemy's eyes on him. He directed his last shot to the feet of Typhon, "Hey bonehead! Yeah, I'm talking to you! I heard you're the one responsible for the plague!"

Typhon snorted and stepped forward to confront the Ranger, _"I don't remember seeing you before Blue Ranger. I'll infect you just like I did the rest of your worthless team."_

Erik angrily tightened the grip on his weapon, "Why don't you come over here and try? You put my friends in danger and I'm going to make sure you pay for it!"

Typhon brandished its maul and waded forward, _"Leave the Ranger to me. Stand watch over the pod."_

Erik stood his ground and let the Xeno close with him, making sure they were both a fair distance off from the drop pod. As Typhon took his first swing, a hail of las bolts erupted from the treeline in the other direction. While the Eidolons standing guard were busy watching the start of a duel with their commander and the human Ranger, they were caught off guard by the sudden vicious attack of Lt. Clarissa Lewis and her team. Several of the guards dropped from the fire and the remaining ones tumbled to the ground firing back from a prone position. Clarissa, James, and Marina scrambled into the entry hatch of the large drop pod and secured the door while Diego hurried inside. While the three returned fire and kept the clone soldiers pinned down, Diego went to work trying to disable the firing controls within the pod.

From outside, Typhon gave a furious growl as it saw what was going on and took several big swings at Erik which the Ranger easily evaded. As the Xeno forced its way into closer quarters, Erik surprised it by reaching for his morpher and quickly calling forth a large mace-like weapon. Erik swung his new Panzerfaust weapon back in a crushing counter blow which smashed into the chest plates of Typhon to drive him back in a shower of sparks. The Omega Trooper raised its guard and exchanged blows with Erik as both heavy club weapons battered against each other.

 _"Your new little toy will not be enough to stop me,"_ Typhon said while it forcefully shoved Erik back a few yards.

"He might be right," Erik muttered quietly into his own radio link back to Atlantis Base. By now, Lucy was monitoring the battle from Ops and taking notes on the performance of her new weapon. "Dr. Beckett, I could use some help here. Where does the anti-armor grenade part come in?"

Lucy typed in a quick schematic to Erik's visor so he could see the instructions, "There should be a firing mechanism on the handle of your weapon. Point the warhead at the target and fire away."

Erik quickly scanned the readout in his helmet and reached for the firing controls built into the handle of his weapon. He turned his Panzerfaust sideways to threaten the Xeno and halt it in its tracks.

 _"Is that supposed to scare me human?"_

Erik smirked and put his finger on the firing button, "No. It's supposed to ruin your day!"

He punched the trigger and felt a burst of recoil as the rocket propelled warhead fired out toward the armored alien. Because Erik had not accounted for the surprisingly powerful recoil of the weapon and its slightly inaccurate targeting systems, the warhead curved downward and exploded near the legs of Typhon. A loud cracking sound with an explosion was heard and Erik stumbled from the raw concussive force of the resulting blast. Typhon was violently hurled backwards and thrown to the ground. The complete front of the heavily defended Xeno's armor was scorched and cracked in several places as Typhon staggered back to its feet and tried to regain its senses.

"Damn… that thing packs a hell of a punch," Erik commented looking at the discharged top of the weapon. He looked up and radioed back to base, "I don't suppose you've got a few more of those warheads in reserve, do you?"

His question was answered as Julian teleported a new heavy warhead directly to the Ranger's waiting hand, "We've only got a couple of these right now Captain. Pick your shots wisely."

"Understood," Erik answered as he locked the weapon head on and turned back to confront his damaged foe. "Who's up for seconds?"

Typhon snarled and pulled its firing control from its side, _"Enough of this Ranger. I'm going to finish the job and kill the rest of the people in the city with another virus bomb."_

The alien pushed the button and stopped in surprise as it realized nothing had happened. It looked over toward its plague launching pod and saw the other human soldiers had secured it themselves. They had likely disabled the firing systems within.

"Not so tough without your little plague bombs now, are you?" Erik taunted as he leveled his weapon for another shot. "This is your last chance."

Typhon clenched its fists and punched in a new set of codes. _"You haven't won yet Ranger. If I can't bomb the rest of the city, I will just go about infecting it the hard way… street by street and house by house."_

Erik stopped as he heard Diego suddenly radio him, "Uh sir? We have a little bit of a problem. I disabled the firing mechanism in the pod, but it looks like a self destruct sequence was just initiated. We have just under 4 minutes before this thing blows."

As part of the Xeno's remote control commands, a small land speeder craft that had been attached to the pod disengaged and raced to Typhon's side. Erik dove clear just in time to avoid getting run over and looked in shock at the Omega Trooper. The Xeno wheeled the speeder around and turned to escape, _"It's your choice Ranger. You can try to stop me, or you can try disarm those barrels of the virus. Either way, I win."_

As the Xeno took off on the speeder and escaped toward Frankfurt, Erik growled and turned to sprint back toward the self destructing pod. He could deal with finishing Typhon later. If that pod blew with all the virus canisters, then all the people of the region along with Clarissa's team would be in danger. When he neared, he found his four allies in a bit of a frantic scramble to disarm the countdown sequence.

"Captain! It's not looking good!" Clarissa exclaimed as she and her teammates desperately fumbled about with the enemy computer consoles to try and avert danger. "We're running out of time."

Erik breathed heavily and looked around trying to come up with a plan, "Diego, you're a tech expert. Is there anything you can do to disable the countdown?"

"Negative sir. I tried. If I were to try and hack in and manually stop the device, it would take too long."

The Blue Ranger looked around and saw the reserve barrel bombs filled with the Necrosis virus. That's when an idea struck him. If they couldn't take the explosion away from the barrels, they would take the barrels away instead.

He turned to Lt. Lewis, "Clarissa, give me your wrist beacon!"

She pulled off the wrist bracelet which allowed Atlantis Base to keep an accurate transporter lock on the soldiers it deployed, "Sir? What are you doing?"

Erik took the bracelet and affixed them to the barrel bombs, "Dr. Beckett, change of plans. I need you to lock on to this beacon and transport these barrels to a secure location on the base. Hurry!"

"On it!" Lucy answered as she furiously keyed in commands from her end for an emergency transport sequence.

The assault team watched as the clutch of toxic barrel bombs dematerialized and were whisked away to safety. From the control console, Corporal Campbell cleared his throat, "Less than one minute people. I think now's a good time to clear out!"

"Let's go!" Erik shouted as he pushed the four troopers out of the hatch before him. The five took off at a full sprint and made it about a hundred yards before the Xeno drop pod exploded in a violent cloud of flames and shrapnel. Erik and his allies dove to the ground and felt the heat and force of the blast pass over them while causing the nearby trees to sway. Fortunately, no virus bombs had been present and the only thing that had been destroyed was the pod itself.

The Blue Ranger shook his head out as he looked around and saw Clarissa making sure her team was safe. Before he could speak, he head a call come in over the comms from Lt. Brandt, "Captain? What happened? We just saw a huge cloud of fire erupt from the treeline."

"It's okay Wil," Erik gasped in relief, "The virus bombs are secure and the drop pod was destroyed. Everyone here is fine."

"Is it over then?"

Erik took a breath and looked west to where the city of Frankfurt lay, "Not yet Lieutenant. We've got one more objective left. It's time to stop that Xeno once and for all."


	10. Healing Hands

**Mission 19: Part 4  
**

General Marcus Caldwell sat at the head of his conference table and folded his hands. As he did, he scrutinized the people sitting around him. There were a few officials from the UN along with some other suits and assorted businessmen. Chief among them was the CEO of the Delphi Corporation, one of Europe's biggest pharmaceutical companies. "That is the situation ladies and gentlemen. We've provided you with the requirements of the vaccine in order to stop the Necrosis virus. The problem now is how we make that happen on such a short timetable."

One of the UN officials grimaced, "General, what we have right now is better than nothing, but do you really believe that this formula for the vaccine will even work? We need time to test it."

"I'm afraid time is a luxury we don't have right now," Caldwell replied, "We have the knowledge and the means to create this medicine, but we have to work together quickly if we're going to save the lives of the people in Frankfurt. Right now, our rough estimate is that there are 200,000 people who have been infected by the virus and are quarantined in the city. That includes the Rangers of Nova Squadron. We've had a few hundred people already die from the virus with others growing sicker by the hour. If we don't move now, the death toll will only climb higher and that's not an outcome that's acceptable to me."

At the other end of the table, Marguerite Davout the French CEO of Delphi Pharmaceutical Corp. stood up and extended her hands, "General, you know that we want to try and help the people of Frankfurt, but what you're asking for is difficult at best. It should be possible for us to convert several of our facilities to a rapid mass production of the drug, but it's going to require a lot of money and the shipping in of resources to cover the transition process."

"Are you really making this all about your bottom-line when hundreds of thousands of people's lives are at stake?" Caldwell said with an edge of incredulity in his voice. "If we sit around and let everyone die from this plague, then there won't be anyone left to buy your damn medicines."

"That's not exactly fair General," Ms. Davout replied defensively, "You know I don't intend to let innocents die, but I have to be objective. I need to take care of my own... just as you're obviously concerned about your Rangers right now."

Caldwell fell silent and relented a bit realizing she had a point. He didn't expect to get so worked up just now, especially when the lives of his Rangers were hanging in the balance too. "Of course... I apologize Ms. Davout. You said there will be logistical issues here. Is there anything that can be done?"

To everyone's surprise, one of the other businessmen who were present stood up. He wasn't a particularly tall or handsome man but he wore an expensive dark colored suit with pinstripes, Italian leather shoes, and a red and black striped tie. His hair was slicked back and a small golden medallion hung from his neck with a dollar sign pendant. "General, perhaps I may be able to offer a solution to the problem?"

Caldwell looked to the businessman and raised an eyebrow. That man, Reginald T. King was the CEO of King Corp, an arms manufacturer for the UNAF forces. Many in the business and military circles knew him by his nickname, "The Corporate King" and it was a fitting one. He ruled his company like a power hungry despot and never passed up on a good opportunity to seize some profit. For now, the UN military had relegated him to filling smaller ammunition contracts because they generally tried to keep him at arm's length.

Beside him was his chief associate, a sleazy looking oil tycoon from Texas aptly nicknamed "Oily Bill." The Corporate King gave an oily smile and extended his hands to the table, "My company will generously volunteer the needed money and resources to begin mass production immediately. We can begin as soon as possible."

Ms. Davout scrutinized him carefully, "What are you playing at exactly Mr. King? I've never known you to be so generous before. Surely there's some kind of angle."

The Corporate King grinned, "Of course Marguerite. You know how the game is played. Never let a good crisis go to waste, and all that, right?"

"What's your price?" Caldwell asked pointedly with a level glare at the businessman.

Mr. King looked to Davout, then back to Caldwell, "If Delphi Corp is going to be mass producing the vaccine for the cities of Earth, they're going to be turning an outrageous profit. What I want is a generous stock options package at Delphi. That, and I want to renegotiate my business with the UNAF for more lucrative contracts."

"Are you insane?" Davout bristled.

"I'm the only one willing to front all this money at once to save the lives of thousands of German citizens," Mr. King retorted. "Would you like to be the one credited with saving the people of Frankfurt, or should I claim the title for myself instead?"

Ms. Davout growled and relented, "All right... we'll draw up a deal. General?"

Caldwell nodded, "I can't make any promises about the contracts, but I'll see what I can do to have High Command reconsider."

"That's all I needed to hear," the Corporate King smiled as he rubbed his hands together, "Right then! Let's save some poor sick German kids, shall we?"

* * *

Meanwhile, the streets of Frankfurt Germany had devolved into a chaotic mess. With scores of infected people getting sicker and more desperate, many tried to escape the horror around them and break through to the other side of the quarantine zone at the west of the city. Local police and a small number of UNAF troops were already overwhelmed by the mob and nearly fell apart at the arrival of the Xeno warrior Typhon. The plague bearer sped through on its jet bike and broke though the line before crossing into the safe districts of the city. Once the Xeno got off its speeder, it began to march down the streets spraying clouds of the purple Necrosis virus everywhere.

Civilians fled their homes in terror or locked their doors and windows while the alien went on its deadly march of death. As chaos spread in west Frankfurt, Heidi Brandt watched in fear from her second story window as the Omega Trooper marched down the block spraying gouts of the plague virus and shooting up nearby buildings with its blasters and explosives. It was getting near and she didn't know what to do. She had a hard enough time moving quickly and feared for the life of her unborn baby. All she could do was huddle in a corner of the room and put a blanket over her hoping it would help ward off the dangerous toxins encroaching upon her neighborhood.

On the streets, Typhon laughed and shot up another row of shops on the block before turning to see a large jeep speeding toward it. The vehicle had seemingly come from nowhere, swerving out of a side-street and plowing into the Xeno full on. The alien flew back into a brick facade of a building while five figures staggered out of the jeep. As Typhon regained its footing, it looked to see the faces of the five other Nova Rangers that came to fight. Unlike the last time they met, the Rangers all looked a bit deflated. There were signs of dark discolorations on their skin and they all looked a bit tired and disheveled.

 _"Rangers... you couldn't wait for my virus to kill you first?"_ the Xeno laughed. _"You really expect to be able to fight me in your current state?"_

Martin stepped forward and tried to stand a little taller, despite feeling completely awful. He noted the scorched and damaged cracks in the enemy's armor plating. "You're one to talk Xeno... you're not looking too hot yourself."

Typhon fumed at the retort and fired a blaster shot at the jeep before the Rangers could reach for their morphers. The shot hit the vehicle, causing it to explode behind them and catch them off guard. The five Rangers were thrown forward by the force of the explosion and toppled to the pavement, too weak and stunned from the debilitating illness to fight back. Typhon marched forward and prepared another virus bomb, _"It's over for you Rangers."_

Just then, a small airship screamed by overhead and halted in front of the alien. Several cords deployed from the transport and Erik descended onto the battlefield followed by Clarissa and her squad of troopers. As they landed on the street, they fired a barrage of laser rifle shots to ward off the Xeno and buy some time for the airship to get clear. Erik looked in dismay to his fellow Rangers struggling on the ground before turning to his other allies, "Clarissa, you and your team get the Rangers clear!"

"Yes sir! You heard the man!" Clarissa barked as she and her team snapped into action to drag the sick Rangers to safety. As they were being evacuated, the five looked in shock as Erik stood his ground armed with a new weapon. Martin blinked in a daze as Clarissa slung his arm over her shoulder and hoisted him up, "Erik? What the... how?"

"Don't sweat the details Captain. Just hang on and let me get you outta here," Clarissa grunted as she dragged him clear, "You guys are gonna be okay. I promise."

Typhon growled and squared up against the Blue Ranger, eager for a rematch. _"We have some unfinished business, you and I."_

Erik gripped his Panzerfaust and scowled. He realized they were very close to Heidi's home and she was in danger just by where they were standing. In a loud voice, he lived up to his surname and gave a savage bark, "I don't like having to use force and take lives, but in your case, I'll make an exception. I won't let you hurt my family... Rangers or otherwise!"

Typhon snorted and drew its own club weapon. Without wasting any more time, the Xeno charged forward to battle the Ranger. Both combatants clashed in the street and locked weapons in a thunderous collision. They both used their great size and strength to try and push the other off balance before Erik parried his foe aside and slipped low under the guard of Typhon. The Blue Ranger spun sideways and landed a crushing blow to the side of the Xeno's knee where it was less protected from the cracked armor.

Typhon reeled sideways as Erik pushed again and slammed his foe back with a backhanded strike. The Omega Trooper fired a barrage of virus canisters from its reserve packs but Erik dove clear in a diving somersault and struck at his enemy's other knee. Now damaged and thrown off balance, Typhon stumbled drunkenly in the streets as Erik stood a safe distance back and leveled his personal weapon, "The plague ends here Xeno... in Ein!" (One)

The Blue Ranger fired the Panzerfaust at his target and the warhead landed just short of the Xeno, engulfing it a great explosion. As the blast subsided, Typhon lay in the street, having been knocked completely off its feet. Erik called in another warhead and fired again, "Zwei!" (Two)

The second shot arced up and landed on the downed alien, blasting it in another punishing explosion. The street shook and the critically damaged Xeno finally rose up slowly from the flaming crater on its last legs. Its weapon attachments were in ruins while its helmet and armor was completely broken and sloughing off its body. Erik called in his third and final warhead. He loaded, aimed, and fired at his now vulnerable foe, "Drei!" (Three)

The final warhead hit the alien dead on and erupted in a great blast which again shook the street and rattled the surrounding houses to their foundations. When the fire cloud subsided, the Omega Trooper had been completely obliterated. Erik relaxed his grip and took a deep breath looking at the ruined streets around him. There was a lot of collateral damage, but if it meant the plague carrying Xeno was gone, then it was a small price to pay. "Dobermann to Atlantis Base... enemy has been eliminated. Frankfurt is safe."

"Good work Erik," Caldwell replied on the other end of the comm, "And the rest of your team?"

The Ranger looked over to where Clarissa and her team had dragged the other Rangers. They were camped out on the safety of the Brandts' small side yard. Clarissa gave a thumbs up and Erik smiled, "They're okay for now sir... but they're getting sicker."

"Don't worry son, help is on the way. The vaccine is currently in production and we should be getting the first shipments into Germany within 24 hours."

"Understood," Erik answered as he ended the call and powered down. He rushed into the townhouse and ran up the stairs looking for his cousin. When he finally reached her room, he halted when he saw her on the floor moaning and holding her stomach. He immediately rushed to her side.

"Heidi! Are you okay?" he said in alarm, "Are you hurt?"

She gasped and panted before shaking her head and clamping down on his arm with an iron grip, "Erik! No... I'm not hurt... but the baby... I think it's coming..."

The Blue Ranger froze with wide eyes, "What?"

Heidi squeezed his arm again in panic, "The baby Erik! My water broke! I'm giving birth!"

"I... uh... no. You can't. This isn't a good time," Erik stammered dumbly. His brain couldn't process going from an intense life or death battle with an alien cyborg to now delivering a baby.

"That's too bad!" Heidi exclaimed as she felt a wave of contractions and almost ripped Erik's arm out of its socket, "Erik, do something!"

"Woman, I'm a combat medic! I've never delivered a baby!" Erik protested in panic before he reached for his Nova Morpher, "Atlantis Base, we need help! Dr. Beckett, I'm requesting an emergency beam out. Have a medical team standing by. We've got a baby on the way."

"Wait... say what?" Lucy's voice asked in shock.

"Just do it! Please!" Erik begged in desperation.

When he saw the light around him and Heidi begin to lock on to his morpher's beacon, he gave a relieved sigh. Something told him this was going to be a very long rest of the day.

* * *

Days later, the other five Nova Rangers returned to Atlantis Base and were wheeled into the medical ward on gurneys. As Caldwell had said, the medicine needed to treat the Necrosis virus had been delivered to Germany and the infected people of Frankfurt were now being given treatment. The Nova Rangers had received medical care in the city to stabilize the illness before they were allowed to be transferred back to Atlantis to recover. By now, they were no longer contagious, but they were all still a bit weak and needed some extended bed-rest in order to heal.

As they were carted into the ward, they were surprised to hear the sound of a piano playing classical music... distinctly a composition by Mozart. Soon enough, they were wheeled into a section of the ward where there was one other occupant. Laying propped up on a bed was Heidi Brandt holding a newborn baby girl while her husband Wilhelm looked on beside her. Sitting across from them was Heidi's cousin Erik playing the music on his keyboard which he had carried into the room.

Erik stopped and came over to greet his friends as they were placed in the room. The Blue Ranger beamed as he greeted his friends, gave Ella's hand a quick squeeze, and then turned to Martin with a small salute, "Welcome home sir. I'm glad to see you all again... and that you're getting well."

"Because of you," Martin smiled gently waving off the salute, "We heard about what happened, about Taldyr, the battle in the woods, and then saving our necks against that Xeno. You did great out there Erik... thank you."

Erik clasped his friend's hand and looked to the other Rangers who voiced their own gratitude and praise from their beds. Ella cleared her throat and tilted her head toward Heidi and her baby, "I think congratulations are in order. She's beautiful. What's her name?"

Heidi beamed, "Her name is Erika. If it wasn't for the heroic actions of her uncle, we might not be here to celebrate her birth at all. After the battle, he had us teleported to Atlantis and I gave birth right here in the base... with his help."

"I've seen some pretty outrageous things on the battlefield, but helping deliver the baby... well, this was a new one," Erik quipped.

"Well I'll be damned. Ella's words about babies being born here were prophetic after all," Erin laughed, "I wonder what the technical nationality of the baby is going to be? Maybe one of those citizen-of-the-world types?"

"I've always kinda hated those lame globalist expressions," Martin chimed in, "I think it's safe to say Erika is still a German national."

Jake smiled and looked to Erik, "Hey big guy, best you don't keep your audience in suspense. I thought you were giving a free concert here."

"The sooner it helps us get well and back on our feet, the better," Bharata added.

Erik laughed and sat back down at his keyboard before turning back to the Red Ranger, "I uh... hope you guys don't mind me playing here for a bit. Heidi said that whenever I play, the baby stops crying. Permission to keep the baby happy, Captain?"

Martin couldn't help but give a gentle laugh and nod his head, "Permission granted."

* * *

 **A/N:**  
 **Thanks again for reading everyone! Hopefully you liked the Necrosis Crisis here. Special shout out goes to Stormasius for a little reference to the Corporate King, a character in one of his parody stories too. Looking forward, you can expect a certain Indonesian action hero to gain a new weapon and save the day from a malfunctioning super-weapon of mass destruction. Par for the course of being a Ranger, right? ;)**


	11. Positional Play

**Mission 20: Part 1  
**

The gentle sounds of falling rain was heard against the windows of Atlantis Base as Bharata Timothy reclined on a couch reading a book of poetry. It was a quiet Saturday morning and the squad was not on duty. There weren't any training drills scheduled and the Green Ranger decided to take some time out in one of the recreation lounges to read and enjoy the sounds of the spring rainstorm outside.

He stretched on the couch of the rec room while a few of his fellow teammates passed the time playing a game of Scrabble at a nearby table. Bharata flipped a page of his poetry book while Ella took her turn and laid down a pair of tiles, "There! Za!"

Martin studied the word and frowned, "Za? Seriously? I call BS. That's not a word."

"Of course it is," Ella protested, "Take it from the resident Italian. It's a short way of saying pizza."

"She's right," Jake sighed in dismay while paging through the Scrabble dictionary, "Technically, it's in here so it's a legal word."

Erik laughed and looked over to the Green Ranger on the couch before calling over, "Hey Bara, you wanna help us out over here? Maybe there are a few good words in those poetry books for us to exploit."

Bharata sat up and shook his head with a smile, "I'm afraid not, but I can probably help you if you needed rhyming couplets to those words."

Ella waved it off and gave a playful wink, "Tell you what Bara, I'll do one better. You want to talk about rhymes? Check out this theme song that Martin, Jake, and I came up with about you."

"You made a theme song about me?" the Green Ranger asked with a puzzled look.

Erik shrugged, "You're usually so quiet and low key about some of your exploits as a Ranger and they wanted to memorialize it."

"Well, yeah... I guess," Bharata admitted sheepishly, "When you're in the intel/recon field you're better off keeping your eyes and ears open more, instead of your mouth."

"So keep your mouth shut, your ears open, and listen to this mate," Jake grinned while Martin started to air guitar and hum a baseline tune in the style of a heavy metal rock and roll song. The Silver Ranger soon followed by adding in an imaginary drum beat before Ella took the lead in singing the lyrics.

 _His suit is green, his kicks are clean, he's a machine, his name's Bharata! (Bara's a badass! Bara's a badass)_  
 _Knows what to do, he'll use kung-fu when he rescues you, his name's Bharata! (Bara's a badass! Bara's a badass!)_  
 _Yeeeoooww! A daring guy, who just can't die and that's no lie, his name's Bharata!_

Before the trio could go on, the door to the lounge flew open and the Yellow Ranger walked inside hand in hand with her boyfriend. He wore a bit of an uneasy expression while Erin took the lead and got everyone's attention, "Hey everyone! Julian and I have an announcement to make."

"You're getting married?" Ella exclaimed excitedly.

"What? No, no no!" Julian gasped in horror, "That's not it at all!"

"Uh... you're having a baby?" Jake guessed lamely before earning himself a slap upside the head from Erin.

"No, you clown! Where would you get a nutso idea like that?"

Martin crossed his arms officiously, "Well, you kinda asked for it Reilly. When a couple walks into a crowded room and shouts 'We have an announcement,' that's typically what people start thinking."

Erin waved it off, "Okay, whatever. What I wanted to say was that we're going to Australia! I just ran into General Caldwell earlier and he told me that our team was given a new assignment. We're to assist in getting a new UNAF command post up and running there."

"What do they need us to do there?" Bharata asked curiously as he tucked his book away and walked over.

"The military is transferring the command operations of the planet's orbital defense guns to Melbourne. That's why they're setting up a new command tower for that purpose. Most of the operations have already transitioned over but they could use a little more help with their computer systems. Caldwell thought maybe Ella and Julian would be up for assisting them."

"Yeah! Count me in!" Ella called cheerfully.

Bharata gave a perceptive smile over to their lab tech, "And I'm guessing Julian here would be eager to go home for a visit too?"

Julian shrugged, "Well... yeah, I am but..."

"I can't wait to get a tour of Melbourne," Erin interrupted with excitement, "Oh, and I almost forgot... what if we meet your parents there? Do you think they'll like me? I hope so. I'd better make sure to make a good impression and pack a nice dress or something. I'll see you later?"

Julian simply nodded his head as Erin gave him a kiss on the cheek and hurried out the door to pack. Martin yawned and stretched before leading the others out the door, "Come on everyone. Let's get a move on. Taking in some sun and surf down under sounds better than sitting around on a rainy day here."

As the others walked out, Bharata took a moment to notice Julian seemed a bit preoccupied and troubled, but he decided to keep quiet for now. As he joined his friends, he just did what any good recon soldier would do and make some mental notes in case it might come up later. Like he said before, it was always better to keep your mouth shut sometimes and just be observant of your surroundings.

* * *

Meanwhile, he dust cleared as a Xeno drop pod settled in the dusty grounds just outside the coastal city of Melbourne. As the pod opened, a new Omega Trooper emerged and stepped out into the sunlight. The warrior designated Phantron scanned its surroundings and fixed its optical sensors on the large tower in the near distance. Unlike his predecessor in Frankfurt, this Xeno cyborg was much lighter and more agile. Instead of bulky armor, it wore sleek armor plating with some sloped designs to deflect away enemy attacks. Perhaps its most unique feature though was its octahedral shaped head which had no discernable face, but rather a sort of helmeted visor with swept back wing-like structures protruding from the temples.

As a unit of Eidolon clone soldiers and battle drones made their way out of the landing pod too, a holographic transmission came in over the Xeno warrior's wrist projector. The image of Warmaster Hellspont appeared and held a steady gaze, "Remember your mission Phantron. Once you've breached the tower's defenses, you are to upload the computer virus and hold your position against any counterattacks."

Phantron answered with a short digitized noise indicating an affirmative before waving the other troops forward. If they were going to launch this surprise attack, they would have to move quickly before the Terran soldiers knew what hit them.

* * *

Upon beaming into Melbourne, Australia the Nova Rangers along with Julian took a moment to admire the sights of the downtown city. The skies were clear and sunny, the air was warm, and a salty sea breeze gently tickled their noses as it came in from the coastline. Despite his earlier hesitance, Julian couldn't help but give a warm smile and take in a deep breath, "Wow… it's great to be home again."

"I can see why," Erik mused as he took a moment to admire the coastal skyline, "Seeing such a modernized city isn't typically what I think of when people talk about Australia."

Julian rolled his eyes gently and started falling back into a slightly more distinct native accent, "The whole country isn't just the Outback mate. Once we take care of business here I'd be happy to show you guys around the place."

"Oh… are there still any places where we can see some kangaroos? Or dingos? And can I hug a koala bear?" Ella asked hopefully.

"First thing's first Catalano," Martin interrupted gently, "Let's check in to our accommodations here in the city. After we report in at the new command post, then maybe the rest of us can go sightseeing a little."

While the others began to head off down the street, Bharata trailed behind a little and listened as Julian spoke quietly with Erin, "Erin… are you really sure you want to meet my family while we're here?"

The Yellow Ranger frowned in mild confusion, "Well sure. Why not? They're not bogans or something, are they?"

"Of course not."

Erin paused with a slight look of worry, "Is it because you think we're moving too fast? Or are you maybe embarrassed by me in some way?"

Julian shook his head and took her hand with a sigh, "No. That's not it at all. In fact, it's the opposite. I'm the one who's a little embarrassed."

"I don't understand," Erin said.

"Well… I don't know. I've always kinda been the brainy dorky one in my family and I'm worried I might have a lot of explaining to do. They might say, what? Julian brought a girl home? How did this happen? He's nothing like those other impressive male Rangers he works with… when Erik's so strong and outgoing, or how Bara is so poised and thoughtful, and how Martin is so confident and level headed."

Erin sighed and stopped to place her hands on his cheeks, "Julian Wilson, the other guys on the team are all great in their own ways, but you are the one I'm with, remember? Don't you think you're selling yourself a little short? Remember how you risked your life on that lunar raid to save me? You even took a blaster bolt to help protect Ella, remember? I think that qualifies you as the most badass tech in Atlantis Base."

Julian smiled in relief," Yeah… I guess you're right. Thanks Erin."

The Yellow Ranger gave him a quick kiss and continued walking with a smile, "Besides, we're both kinda nerds anyway… at least my own teammates seem to think I am too."

Bharata smiled quietly and kept walking, all while making no indication that he was eavesdropping. He had considered pulling Julian aside earlier and asking him if he needed help with anything. Still, the Green Ranger was just glad that Erin seemed to have everything under control and he hoped that would be the most troubling thing that would happen on this excursion. Of course, he could only hope.

* * *

Meanwhile, the Xeno commander Phantron launched a lightning fast assault on the military tower complex known locally as Victoria Base. After getting the jump on the guards at the base's perimeter, Phantron had used its unique speed and stealth to open the way for its allied Xenos to storm the area. While the Eidolons caught most of the base's garrison flat footed in the small barracks and took them prisoner, the drone soldiers stormed their way up several levels of the tower and subdued the scientists working there. Phantron continued leading the raiders up to the higher command levels and took charge upon facing the last major resistance, a small squad of heavily armed marines who were blocking the last doors to the tower command chambers.

The Xeno activated its own special ability and began to distort its image so that it almost appeared to clone itself. As it kept moving forward across the wide central room, the mirror images doubled again and multiplied before firing back at the human soldiers who guarded the passageway. The four Phantrons moved in confusing patterns overlapping their movements and their laser fire from the forehead which made it difficult for any of the defenders to see exactly what they were aiming at. As soon as one Xeno image took a hit from the laser fire of the marines, another would reappear or blur into another one of the mirror clones. With their perceptions and aim confounded, the marines hesitated before firing again, but it was too late. It was just enough time for the real Phantron to throw a stun grenade on the disoriented Terrans. The stun grenade went off and the marines were thrown aside, lying on the ground in a daze while the mirror clones reformed into the original Phantron and made it whole again.

While some of the clone troopers followed behind and took the downed marines hostage, Phantron barged into the tower's command lab and headed for the central console. The Omega Trooper marched up and inserted a cable from its wrist to download data from its own memory banks into the central computer. Several long moments passed before Phantron removed its cord and began punching in keycodes. Moments later, the large central console went red and an audio link to Warmaster Hellspont was established. Phantron spoke in its strange digitized language before Hellspont responded, "Excellent Phantron. Now that you have control of the base, it will only be a matter of time before we will be able to take control of the Terrans' orbital guns."

Phantron chirped with an interrogative tone before Hellspont answered, "No. We will not deactivate them… yet. We will turn the guns on the humans first… to ravage their military forces and to bombard their cities. All we need is time for that system virus to take full effect. Until then, you know what to do?"

Phantron nodded and gave an affirmative sound before it headed out of the room. As it did, the red computer screen began to display a bar showing how far along the malware virus had to go before it fully seized the tower's controls.

* * *

Some time later, the Nova Rangers all gathered in the empty lobby of the hotel they had checked into. General Caldwell had just radioed them and they listened in horror at what he had to report. "Rangers, we've just received word that Victoria Base has fallen into enemy hands. A Xeno commander and its raiding party have overwhelmed the base defenses and cut off communication."

Julian's eyes went wide, not only at the sudden shocking news of the attack, but at the fact that this was going on just outside the city limits. Bharata frowned and thought things through, "This is not good. If the Xenos have taken over Victoria Base, then that means that they'll have access to the planet's orbital guns."

Everyone stopped and stared at him as Bharata continued, "Think about it guys. They must have learned that the UNAF was going to transfer control of the guns to that station. If they've seized the tower, that means that either they could turn the guns on us, or deactivate them so that their fleet could attack."

"We can't let that happen," Martin agreed with a grim nod, "General, how soon can we transport over to Victoria Base?"

Caldwell answered over the comms, "I'm afraid it won't be that simple Captain. It seems the Xenos have already set up a jamming field to prevent us from directly beaming in response teams."

"I don't suppose we could just let the Army to respond, could we?" Jake suggested, "Maybe just blow the tower with some tanks and artillery? Or hell, how about an airstrike?"

"That's not a good option either Sergeant," said Caldwell, "We have reason to believe the Xenos have taken a number of hostages, among them scientists and soldiers of the base garrison. We don't have a lot of time, but I propose a covert commando style raid."

Erin cast a worried look to her teammates, "A raid? Are you sure we'll be able to pull that off ourselves? We're going to have to cover a large area, and we don't know just how much firepower the enemy is packing."

Caldwell responded, "That's why I'm going to call in some backup for your squad. We're going to need elite soldiers who are specialists in rapid assault operations."

Erik raised an eyebrow, "All right. Who did you have in mind, sir?"

"I'm calling on the STARCOM troopers for assistance. Perhaps you'd like to work alongside Captain Austin again?"

The other Rangers wrinkled their noses in mild displeasure save for Jake who hadn't been acquainted with that special forces unit. While the Rangers had eventually learned to work side by side with the STARs, they still maintained a bit of a rivalry and skepticism over their peers' sometimes overly-aggressive tactics in battle. Martin nodded slowly and ended the call, "Understood General. We'll be ready. Bara? If this is going to be a covert raid, I want you taking the lead. Find some specs of Victoria Base and the surrounding region. We're going to have a working gameplan before Austin and his STARs even step foot in the city."


	12. Wargames

**Mission 20: Part 2  
**

Lt. Bharata Timothy waited patiently in one of the briefing rooms of a small UNAF airbase located just on the other side of Melbourne. Like the other Rangers present, he had now dressed in his BDUs and had his combat gear set aside, ready for deployment. Joining them at the table was their comrade Julian Wilson who had also donned a battle uniform. He stirred in his seat nervously before turning to the Green Ranger and speaking quietly, "Bara, aren't you feeling nervous about this mission? We're not even sure what to expect out there."

"None of us every really know what's going to happen," Bharata said while reviewing his notes, "All I can do is use the information I've gathered about the situation and make my best guess. Sometimes you've just got to trust your natural instincts and senses when all else fails."

At that moment, the door opened and a team of special forces commandos entered. They were dressed in their distinct black colored BDUs which bore a star logo of their unit on the shoulder patch. Leading the STARs, the fair featured Captain Jeffery Austin entered with his usual confident air and sized up the Nova Rangers. Much like his other troops, they all looked like hungry sharks who were sniffing the waters looking for any signs of hesitation or weakness. The Nova Rangers all regarded them calmly as Martin rose and received a salute from Austin, who was technically his junior in the chain of command.

"Captain Sterling, we meet again. It's been a while since we locked horns with the Xenos together." Austin said shaking his hand.

"I see you survived the battle of Dubai," Martin answered, "Compared to that, this should be a piece of cake. Still, isn't this all beneath such a crack unit as you guys?"

Captain Austin snorted and took a seat along with his own squadmates, "Now now sir. If you guys are really just afraid that you can't keep up on the battlefield, we'd completely understand."

"Huh... I see what you mean," Jake commented quietly to Ella across the table, "This Captain Austin chap sounds like a bit of a tosser."

As the others took a seat, Bharata cleared his throat and gestured to a projector screen on the wall with important mission data he had prepared. "All right everyone. I've studied up on the layout of Victoria Base. As you know, this is where the UNAF has just transferred its command of the orbital guns. We have reason to believe that the Xenos who have seized the tower have taken numerous hostages and are in the process of sabotaging our defense systems."

Captain Austin nodded, "Okay Lieutenant, I assume the Xenos are jamming the area around the tower? How are we going to get in?"

Bharata pulled up a few new displays, "Victoria Base has a small system of underground tunnels leading into the tower. Those are used by maintenance crews and supply convoys which regularly service the base. It's likely that the Xenos are more concerned with watching what's going on topside and aren't yet aware of Victoria Base's underground passageways yet."

Erin folded her arms, "All right, so then once we get in, what's the plan?"

Martin rose, "I'll lead a small team of Rangers to draw off the main Xeno force and keep them occupied. Ella and Julian, you two are going to be in charge of restoring our satellite systems. Captain Austin and Bharata will lead the assault on the upper floors and keep you two covered. Bara? Thanks again for the research and schematics. If that's everything, let's get to it!"

* * *

Sometime later, two military jeeps drove up the deserted roads leading toward the service tunnels on the outskirts of Victoria Base. The Rangers had piled into one jeep while the other carried the STARs. When they stopped at the bunker leading into the underground entrance ramp, Ella and Erin got to work disabling the electronic security locks on the doors. While they waited for a few minutes, General Caldwell radioed in, "Rangers, I'm going to be taking the lead in Ops right now. Dr. Beckett is going to monitor your progress while she finishes a new weapon in her lab. I understand she has something in the works for you Lt. Timothy."

"I look forward to it," Bharata nodded as he continued to review the base schematics and prepare himself.

"It's imperative that your strike team reaches the command console in the tower," Caldwell continued, "We've just gotten an update that a Xeno computer virus has seized nearly half of the firing control systems of the orbital guns. We don't have a lot of time to waste so make that your top priority, even over the hostages."

"Understood General. We won't fail," Captain Austin answered just as the Yellow and Pink Rangers hurried back to board the jeeps.

"All right! We just hacked the doors. We're in!"

The armored doors to the entrance ramp slid open and allowed the strike team passage. Jake restarted the jeep he was driving and began to drive forward, "Nice work ladies, but that was just the opening act. Let's get a move on, shall we?"

The two jeeps sped down the ramp and descended into the underground service tunnel. Despite the base being occupied by the enemy, there didn't seem to be enough Xenos to guard the peripheries as they were more focused on preventing a direct attack above ground.

After a short drive, they traversed the access tunnel undetected and finally reached the sub-basement of the tower base. As they piled out of the jeeps, the Rangers morphed and drew their weapons. Martin took Erik, Erin, and Jake with him to lead the way up the main stairwells, "Okay everyone, we're on our own right now. Communication with Atlantis will be cut off. My team will try to draw the guards off you guys and get the hostages to safety."

Captain Austin cocked his assault rifle and followed behind with his men, "If we can, we're going to try and knock out the Xeno signal jammers while we're at it."

Bharata led the way forward with his map of the base. After ascending the stairwells, they stealthily made their way around some corridors until they reached the central terminal on the first floor. Bharata halted the group and pointed them toward the main elevators leading up to the higher floors.

"Damn… not good," Erin hissed as she glanced around the terminal. "I see a bunch of guards prowling around the atrium and the only way to the main elevator is a sprint across the open floor."

"Captain, I see several more Xenos from the second floor scaffoldings up there," Erik added with a discouraged voice, "So much for going the subtle route."

Austin and his STARs shifted their formation into two columns and looked to the Red Ranger, "We've still got the element of surprise. You guys cover us and we'll make a break for the elevators."

Martin nodded and drew his blaster pistol, "All right. You guys be careful. Julian, you gonna be okay?"

The tech gave a nervous nod and turtled up under his helmet and flak vest. Bharata smiled and clapped him on the shoulder encouragingly, "You'll be fine. If I could learn to keep my head down and avoid blaster fire before, so can you."

"Let's go!" Austin barked as he and his men dashed forward firing their rifles on the surprised aliens dropping a few of them. As the Rangers followed behind, a fierce firefight erupted on the first floor terminal. After a harrowing sprint across the open floor, the STARs, Bharata, Ella, and Julian scrambled inside the large elevators while the others took cover and defended them. They looked to be pinned down under a heavy crossfire, but Bharata quickly closed the elevator doors and sent them hurtling up toward the upper command floors.

While everyone else did a quick check to make sure no one was harmed, Ella couldn't help but playfully nudge the Green Ranger in the elbow, "Hey, is this bringing back memories of Manilla? You seem to have a thing for raiding towers."

Bharata gave a thin smile under his visor, "I just hope this one doesn't blow up like the last one."

Once they reached the command floor, the STARs fanned out and were the first to meet several battle drones who had occupied the tower's command center. The elite human commandos in black didn't waste any time or effort and immediately leapt into cover while letting loose with controlled and accurate rifle shots. Captain Austin led the way as they mowed down the drones before capping the last one in the skull. From a few of the other adjacent rooms, his squadmates called out "Clear!"

Captain Austin turned and gave a quick nod to the Rangers and the computer consoles in the room, "All right Nova Squad, time for you to pull your weight. We'll clear the rest of the upper floors and knock out that jamming device. You guys work on getting our guns back online."

"Can do sir," Ella answered as she and Julian hurried over to the main console. It read 78% of the systems were under Xeno control as the virus continued to spread. Both of them got to work typing furiously and manipulating lines of code while Bharata stood guard. The STARs hurried out of the room and made their way upstairs leaving the Green Ranger to pace nervously while his comrades worked. He didn't like the idea of still being cut off communicating with Atlantis Base, nor did he like the idea of leaving his other teammates pinned down under heavy fire in trying to get up here. For now, he'd just have to keep calm and do what he always did, which was keep an eye on his surroundings.

He was glad he did because he noticed the elevator door open again as a figure arrived from one of the lower floors. If he wasn't mistaken, it looked like some kind of stealth class Xeno with a polyhedral head and curved sloped armor. That must have been the thing that had helped to take over the base! Bharata clenched his fists and stood his ground. At that moment, it was all he could do.

* * *

Meanwhile, the other Rangers remained pinned down under heavy fire by the enemy in the first floor lobby as more clone soldiers came to help. By now, the majority of the Eidolons in the enemy landing party had been diverted to try and stop the Nova Rangers. As some of the metal support pillars were pounded by enemy fire, Martin activated the shield mode on his morpher and signaled Erik to do so too. He then turned to the Silver Ranger, "Sergeant Massey, we could use your expertise here. Would you mind evening the odds a little?"

Jake readied his Fusion Striker in rifle mode, "My pleasure Captain. Erin, do you want to make a little sport of it today?"

The Yellow Ranger readied her plasma pistol, "Let's do this."

The Red and Blue Rangers broke from cover raising their shields while Erin and Jake began to return fire at the clones around them. Amid the chaotic storm of blaster bolts which tore up the whole terminal, Martin and Erik shifted their stances and kept the others protected while Erin and Jake kept pace with each other gunning down the clones around them.

"I've got 10!" Erin called out while Jake blasted a Xeno coming in from a side door.

"Damn! That makes nine," he grunted as the two ducked behind their comrades' shields again. They were still being pelted from above by a storm of enemy sniper fire. The five remaining clones had taken positions on the scaffolding which provided them cover and allowed for a good vantage point to shoot at the Rangers.

"How are we going to hit those bastards?" Erin growled while she kept her head down under Martin's shield.

Jake took a moment to wait under Erik's shield before he got an idea. He switched the setting of his blaster rifle to its other mode and did a quick look at the geometry of the terminal. In a flash, the Silver Ranger tumbled sideways from Erik's protection and fired several bursts at the ceilings and the upper corners of the walls above the second floor balconies. Everyone watched in amazement as Jake nimbly sidestepped a few sniper shots and tumbled clear of another before firing at the other corners of the ceilings. His special laser bolts ricochet off the corners of the walls at different angles to pin down the enemy snipers in a sort of crossfire while his second volley of ricochet shots rained down from the ceilings at exactly the spots where the snipers had take cover. Even though the clones were ducking behind cover now, it didn't stop the bouncing shots from killing them from above.

"He shoots, he scores! 14 kills for the win!" Jake proudly crowed as he held his smoking rifle and tilted his head toward Erin.

"Wunderbar! Nice shooting Massey!" Erik cheered giving his younger comrade a fist bump while Erin sputtered in shock toward Martin.

"Hey no fair… that's not cheating… is it?"

Martin simply patted her on the shoulder and turned to the others, "Come on. Let's go find the hostages and get them clear."

* * *

Back up top, Bharata leapt at the Xeno Phantron with a flying jump kick and stumbled as the enemy made a clone image of itself. The false Phantron disappeared while the real one struck the Green Ranger back with a punch. Bharata growled and shook off the blow only to find he was up against three more Phantrons now. He squared up and tried to take two of them out at once with a spinning tornado kick, but he missed again and hit only the false holograms. Phantron immediately grabbed the Ranger from behind and hurled him across the room so that he slammed hard against the wall.

As Bharata slumped over, having been momentarily dazed, Ella turned around to see what was going on. To her shock, Phantron now targeted her and flipped up a forehead plate revealing a laser blaster. Ella gave a cry as she was blasted from behind and thrown face first into a computer panel before toppling to the ground.

The concentrated laser blast was so forceful it caused the Pink Ranger to demorph and left a small singe on the back of her flak vest. Before Phantron could reach out a hand to finish her off, Bharata recovered his senses and leapt forward from the side to grab the Xeno's arm. Bharata gave it a twist and knocked it away with a forceful snap kick to the side while Julian hurried over to help his fallen comrade. He gingerly rolled the stunned Pink Ranger over and shook her lightly, "Ella? Ella? Are you okay?"

She grunted and let him prop her up against a computer panel, "I think so. My flack vest took the rest of that shot?"

"Looks like," Julian confirmed in relief while Bharata continued to grapple and fight Phantron in hand to hand combat nearby.

Ella glanced to the command bar on the screen and saw it reach 95% before she pushed Julian toward it, "Go! Finish putting in the rest of the codes. We don't have much time!"

As the tech scrambled to his feet and furiously began punching in computer code to stop the virus, Bharata valiantly did his best against the Xeno warrior. Phantron circled him menacingly while creating more holographic clones. The Green Ranger took a defensive fighting stance trying to keep track of his enemy while the Phantons blurred together and reshuffled themselves. Here and there, Xeno would lash out with a kick or punch and while Bharata maintained his disciplined defense, getting attacked from all sides kept him off balance.

That was until Bharata decided to go on the offensive and throw a few kicks and punches at the mirror images. When he struck one of the holograms, it would disappear and he tried several times to find the right one. To his alarm, Bharata looked forward and saw the Phantron in front of him open its forehead plate where it kept its blaster weapon. As it fired, the Ranger raised his arms feebly but felt the actual energy blast hit him from the side and throw him over. The Phantrons reformed into one and the Xeno loomed over him triumphantly.

Julian continued frantically typing on the console to try and halt the virus while at the top of the tower, the STARs were mopping up the last of the Xeno battle drones guarding the floor. Captain Austin smashed open a door leading to the communications grid and spotted a Xeno jamming device attached to the computer. While his other squadmates finished fighting the battle drones, Austin took up his rifle and aimed before firing two shots at the device. The shots were clean and destroyed the jammer without damaging the other systems. He reached for his comm. bead and tested it against the garbled signal from Atlantis Base, "STARs to Atlantis? Come in. We've destroyed the signal jammer and taken the top floor."

Slowly, a transmission came back and cleared up to reveal Caldwell's voice, "Excellent work Captain. Continue sweeping the floors and clear them out."

* * *

At the moment she saw the signal strength return, Lucy looked up from her work in the lab and quickly placed a small metal stick in a mini transporter. "Bara, the jamming signals are down. Stand by to receive a new weapon."

In a flash, the object was teleported to Bharata's hands and the Green Ranger took a moment to gawk at his weapon. He pressed the central button on the grip and both sides of the stick extended out into a full length staff with a double headed force emitter on each end. Once the weapon was activated, the emitters crackled with an electrically charged field around them. The Green Ranger surprised his enemy by using his weapon to trip the Xeno and recover his own footing. Bharata twirled the staff and took a defensive stance toward Phantron, "Cool. What is it?"

"That is a Disruptor Staff," Lucy answered while Bharata clashed with the Omega Trooper. "The ion charges at the ends of the staff should be effective at deflecting Xeno attacks and interfering with their own systems."

The Green Ranger locked his weapon with the forearm of his foe for a moment, "Nice! I think I can work with that."

Phantron immediately split itself into multiple holographic copies and used its encirclement technique again. Bharata waited patiently before turning his staff and unleashing a burst of ionized particles to momentarily stun his attackers. The other holograms disappeared while the real Phantron staggered a moment. Bharata charged the other end of his staff and brought it around with a punishing strike to the head sending the Xeno crashing into some workstations nearby.

"I'm liking this weapon already Dr. Beckett," he grinned as Phantron recovered and split itself into three images.

The Omega Trooper charged forward and began firing a barrage of its laser bolts but Bharata stayed focused and twirled his weapon to deflect the incoming shots aside. As the attackers rushed forward the Green Ranger met their assault and defeated each hologram before ramming a charged end of the staff into the real Phantron. The Omega Trooper convulsed from the electric shock and tried to throw a punch, but Bharata slipped under his enemy's guard and hooked his weapon around the Xeno's neck to put it in a choke-hold. "Julian! How're you doing over there?"

Julian was sweating bullets as he typed at the console and saw the bar reach 98%. Just before time could run out, the bar stopped loading and the screen went blue again, indicating he had contained the virus and regained control. "Holy crap! I did it! I have control again!"

"Good!" Bharata grunted against the struggling Xeno in his grip, "I need you to activate one of the orbital guns. Pick a coordinate in the middle of the Outback and get ready to fire."

"What?"

"Just do it!" Bharata shouted. While he worked to activate a gun, Bharata opened a channel back to Lucy, "Dr. Beckett, I need you to lock onto my coordinates with the transporter, but beam out the Xeno instead. Have its endpoint match Julian's."

Back in her lab, Lucy gave a grin as she caught on to the plan, "Understood Bara. Initiating transport."

Bharata began to let up as he saw Phantron grow bright and begin to dematerialize from his grip. Moments later, the Xeno was gone and transported away, likely to some deserted dusty field in the middle of the Australian mainland.

Julian turned and gave a nod, "I've got control of one of the guns. Locked on target."

"Fire!" Bharata smiled, "Let's see that bastard try to dodge this."

* * *

When the light of the transporter faded, Phantron stopped and looked around in confusion. It was no longer in Victoria Base, but was now standing in the middle of a rocky barren field in the middle of the Outback with nothing around for miles. The Xeno's confusion only lasted for a minute or two before it looked up to the skies and saw a bright beam of light crashing down toward it. It only registered too late that this must have been an ion beam from one of the orbital guns that had now fired directly on the Xeno's position.

It only had a few moments to raise its hand to shield its optical sensors before the large searing ion beam crashed down from the heavens and lit up the desert skies in a brilliant ball of fire and light.

* * *

Back at Victoria Base, Bharata walked over to help Ella back to her feet before putting his own weapon away. Ella chuckled and clapped him on the shoulder, "Bharata Timothy, I think you've outdone yourself this time. That was the most creative way to kill a Xeno I've ever seen. I'm impressed."

The Green Ranger powered down and returned her grin as Captain Austin and the STARs returned to the room only to see everything had been taken care of, "Yeah... well, I had a lot of backup. Captain. Julian."

Julian gave a proud thumbs up while Jeff Austin simply shrugged and removed his helmet, "Oh... well, it seems everything is all good here. In that case, carry on Lieutenant."

Bharata reached for his comm and radioed the rest of the squad, "Martin? Are you guys okay?"

"Everyone's fine Bara, we just evacuated the hostages," came Martin's voice on the other end, "What's your status?"

Ella cut in, "I think we're going to have to add a few more verses to our heroic ballad Captain. We got the guns back online and Bara here just took out an enemy with his cool new toy."

As Julian, Ella, and Bharata shared another laugh, Captain Austin simply turned to his own squadmates, only to be met with blank expressions and puzzled shrugs.

* * *

A day or two later, things had begun to settle down again in Melbourne. The STARs had left for a new assignment while Victoria Base was restored back to working order. After having averted another crisis, the Nova Rangers were given two days leave in Australia before having to report back to Atlantis Base. As they reconvened in their hotel lobby, they decided to figure out what to do with their time. Julian and Erin had dressed up in nice presentable civilian clothes, Julian in khakis and a white dress shirt while Erin had put on a yellow sundress and styled up her hair.

"My my, aren't we looking nice," Ella teased gently, "This is a rare sight."

Julian cleared his throat, "Erin and I are going to be going out today to meet my family for a nice brunch. We thought it was only right to do this since we're both here for a few days. You guys are free to stop by later."

"Thanks, but that's okay mate. We have plans of our own," Jake winked, "Ella, Martin, and I are going to be checking out a local wildlife preserve to see all the native critters around here. Did you have any idea how many poisonous bugs there are in this country? That's pretty incredible."

"Which is probably why you Brits used my people's land as your penal colony for several decades," Julian joked with a little elbow.

"I don't want to see all the gross bugs Jake. I'm not leaving this country until I hug a koala bear," Ella said while crossing her arms. Martin simply gave a noncommital shrug while Erik walked over applying some sunscreen lotion to his arms. Both he and Bharata looked like they were dressed for a day at the beach with swimming trunks and color coded cutoff shirts.

"Are you sure you want to put all that on big guy?" Bharata asked, "You're completely caked in that stuff."

The Blue Ranger sighed and pointed to the sky, "Hey, if we're going to hit the beach today, I don't want that hole in the ozone layer roasting my pasty German ass. You remember what happened to Martin and I in Jakarta?"

Bharata laughed and nodded, "Ah. That's right. Well if you want, I'm going to be bringing an umbrella so I can sit and finish reading some of my poetry today. You're welcome to share the shade."

"Which reminds me..." Jake said while slinging an arm around the Green Ranger and leading the group out the door, "If you want to hear some real poetry, we've added a few more verses to your theme song after your heroics at Victoria Base. Do you want to hear them?"

"Oh God... that again," Bharata asked sheepishly. "Do I have to?"

"Hit it Martin!" Ella cheered as they all walked out the lobby doors together, "His suit is green, his kicks are clean, he's a machine, his name's Bharata... (Bara's a badass! Bara's a badass!)

* * *

 **A/N:**  
 **Stay tuned Readers, coming up in the next plot is a brand new threat to shake the resolve of our Red Ranger. This time, not even a special weapon may be enough. Perhaps a long awaited super-mode for the team to even the odds? We'll just have to wait and see. ;)**


	13. Blood Feud

**Mission 21: Part 1  
**

A gentle red and orange hue of the fading sun hung over the horizon while Martin Sterling stood on the rooftops of an apartment building in the West End of Atlantis Base. He was dressed down to his civilian clothes, a pair of jeans and a red zip up hoodie and he busily studied a star chart marking down a series of coordinates. Nearby, his friend Lucy Beckett was hunched over an amateur telescope and worked to get it in focus. On that particular evening, there was supposed to be a meteor shower and the Red Ranger had invited his friends to come watch it, along with a little guided astronomy tour of the Spring skies. On the list were a few planets and constellations followed by the meteors themselves.

As he waited for the others to arrive to the roof of Lucy's apartment building, he walked over and decided to mess with her while she was distracted and peering into the lens. He blew in her ear and gave a playful laugh while poking her in the sides, "Look! Aliens from Ur-anus!"

Lucy gave a startled squeak and jumped backwards right into him. As he caught her, he gave a laugh while she fixed him with a frown and readjusted her glasses.

"Oh man, you should have seen your face just now Luce. You jumped a mile."

She gave a mild huff and adjusted her casual white turtleneck sweater, trying to regain her dignity, "That was not funny Martin. I could have broken your telescope."

He let her go and went to work making the final adjustments on the scope, "That's okay. Worst comes to worst, we could just go the base's observatory and watch from there."

While he worked, Lucy watched him and her expression softened into a gentle smile, "You know... even after doing this for several years, it's still funny watching you geek out over this whole astronomy hobby. It just doesn't seem like something a Power Ranger would be interested in."

"Well I don't know about that," he said idly while making a few adjustments, "You do know I'm still an Air Force officer and most of us aren't dummies either. I still had to take my fair share of classes in physics, aeronautics, and meteorology. I guess I just like the idea of wanting to know what's out there... beyond the solar system."

"You might get your chance one day," Lucy said crossing her arms and looking up into the evening skies, "Now that the Adventi database is translated, we might be able to create those warp drive engines one day. Maybe they'll need someone crazy enough to pilot one of those ships."

Martin finished the calibrations and looked up with a smile, "I couldn't go it alone. Wouldn't you want to come with me?"

Lucy stopped and looked at him. She wasn't sure what he meant exactly, but she felt her cheeks flush slightly, "I... what? Come with you?"

"Sure," he said with a shrug, "Wouldn't you be interested in learning more too? Besides, it would be kinda lonely going on a great adventure without your best friend, right?"

"Yeah..." she said with a gentle smile and nod, "I suppose it would be."

They shared a lingering smile for a moment before they saw the other Rangers arrive at the rooftop and wave their hands in greeting. The Red Ranger gave her a nudge and headed for the telescope, "Heck, maybe after the others see what I have to show them tonight, they might want to come too."

* * *

Meanwhile, deep in space on the other side of the moon Warmaster Hellspont waited patiently in a special lab which had been set aside within the Xeno mothership. A few drone technicians shuffled about working on their projects while the High General of the Xeno Machina forces looked on. Before him were five large bio tubes with a protective screen to conceal the contents. Hellspont crossed his arms and idly looked at the tubes before the doors to the secluded lab opened and Taldyr entered followed by two other battle drones. The three Xenos wheeled in a large drum of special oil mounted on a carriage before stopping in front of their commander.

Taldyr bowed his head respectfully, "We're here with the oil Warmaster... just as you requested."

Hellspont gave a satisfied smile and nodded, "Very good. Have the drones take the oil and mount it to the feeder tubes leading to these pods."

Taldyr nodded to the drones and the robotic grunt soldiers left to wheel away the oil drum and follow Hellspont's command.

The clone soldier raised his eyes slightly and decided to be a little brave, "With all respect Warmaster, I couldn't help but notice that you had requisitioned a large amount of special synthesized oil. Are you creating something large?"

"In a manner of speaking," the Warmaster snorted in amusement while he folded his arms. Taldyr had asked a good question. For the Xeno Machina, many of their drones and cybernetic hybrids functioned using that special oil. In place of an organic being's blood, the oil was often substituted when the victim was turned into a cybernetic machine. Instead of staying secretive, the Warmaster was rather proud of his new creation and decided to indulge Taldyr's curiosity. "Look at these five bio-tubes in front of us. What do you think are inside them?"

Taldyr shifted uncomfortably, "I'm not sure. Special clone soldiers?"

Hellspont shook his head, "Not just any special soldiers. I've commissioned a new project to help us deal with the Nova Rangers once and for all... by creating special cyborg warriors."

As the drones began the oil feed into the tubes, Hellspont pressed a few buttons on a control console to slide open the covers of the tubes to reveal what was inside. There floating within the bio liquids of the tubes were what looked to be five humans... except they weren't. There were four males and one female, all attached to the feeding tubes. To Taldyr's horror, he could see the majority of the warriors' bodies were covered in an artificially grown skin while other parts still revealed what was really underneath... metallic skeletons and bionic parts. Even more chilling, he could see the faces of these cyborgs disguised as humans and they did not resemble any of the clone soldiers in their forces. These were truly unique and customized. The thing that made Taldyr's blood run cold was the face of one of the cyborgs. It looked exactly like Captain Sterling, the Red Nova Ranger.

"Warmaster?" he asked in a surprisingly shaken voice.

Hellspont gestured to the tubes, "What you see here are the likenesses of the Alpha Rangers. These were the first Rangers who dared to stand against me with their primitive technology. These were the Rangers I killed in battle... all except for one."

"The Red Nova Ranger..." Taldyr answered meekly. "I don't understand... why?"

Hellspont turned to his subordinate with a fierce look in his eyes, "Why? Because I want him to suffer. Martin Sterling defied me by surviving our first battle. He defies me now by leading those new Rangers in their war against us, and I take it as a personal insult that he dared come into our base, caused great harm, and openly mocked me in front of my own troops. My war with him is personal."

"But these Rangers..." Taldyr asked in confusion, "What does that have to do with anything?"

Hellspont smiled and walked up to a birthing tube and ran a hand gently along the window of the one containing the Martin cyborg, "These were his former teammates... his former friends. I hurt him once by killing them in front of his eyes. Now I'll hurt him once more. He will be forced to see them die all over again. This time by his own hands... if they don't kill him first."

Taldyr swallowed hard. He had to admit, this plan was truly evil... sick, twisted, and brilliant all at the same time. "These Alpha Rangers... they're still just cyborgs. How will they be able to fight the Nova Rangers?"

This time Hellspont did not oblige him with an answer and waved a dismissive hand, "Do not concern yourself with such things Taldyr. Leave that little detail to me."

* * *

The next day, Julian Wilson entered the R&D lab carrying a box full of components and tools. As he approached Lucy Beckett's lab table, he found her already at work assembling what looked to be the frame of a special power cell. He set the items down and adjusted his labcoat, "Hey Dr. Beckett, I gathered all the things you asked for. Most importantly, here is that Trilithium power cell you asked for."

He reached into a container and removed a cylindrical device with a large rounded crystal affixed to the center of the object. It glowed with a gentle reddish light making it appear both beautiful and dangerous at the same time. Lucy took the cell and examined it for a moment before giving a satisfied smile and setting it aside. "Thank you Julian. That will be a big help to me."

As she continued to work, Julian peeked over his mentor's shoulder, "Umm, Dr. B? If you don't mind me saying... it's not often we requisition one of those things. Those cells can produce some serious energy output. I assume you're creating a weapon?"

"Not just any weapon Julian," Lucy said absently welding some metal together, "I'm crafting a special weapon for Martin and it has to be perfect."

"Like the ones we made for the others weren't perfect?" Julian asked innocently.

She stopped and glared at him with a mildly reproving look, "I didn't mean it like that. I'm rolling out his weapon last because it took the most time in development. The power output and settings have to be finely tuned and the weapon's balance can't be off either."

Julian scratched his chin and studied the components on Lucy's table to make a guess at what her project was. "Hmm, what are you making? Some kind of insane melee weapon? Maybe a high powered blaster rifle?"

"Don't worry about that right now Julian. You just leave everything to me," she smiled.

Julian simply sighed and rummaged in the box for a few more items, "I also got you that special welding equipment you requested. Looks like we're going to be doing some precision type work later today?"

Lucy nodded, and handed him a few pieces of what looked to be some type of body armor. They were all extremely light and took on an almost white colored appearance. "Yes. Those will be general improvements to the Ranger suits. I'm not ready to present it to them yet, but this should offer a great improvement to their defenses and fighting ability."

The younger tech nodded in approval. After all, how could he not be in favor of any measure which helped to protect his Ranger friends in battle? He picked up the welding torch, "All right Dr. Beckett, just say the word and tell me what to do."

Lucy gave her assistant a smile, "All right. Why don't you start in on those shoulder guards. We've got a lot to do today."

* * *

Meanwhile, Martin sat in his quarters finishing up some paperwork while taking a video call at the same time. On the other end of the line, his girlfriend Chrissy flipped through a brochure and held up a few of the glossy pictures to the screen, "What do you think of these Caribbean locations? These spots in the Bahamas look nice... or maybe the US Virgin Islands?"

"Uh huh... they all look great Chris," Martin said distractedly while he signed off on some forms.

She put down the brochure and gave a patient sigh, "Come on Martin, this is your vacation too! I want you to have some say in all this."

"Like I said, anywhere is fine," he replied while continuing to work, "A little spring break is great as long as it's with you and anywhere but here."

"Are you sure the whole base won't fall apart without you being there?" she teased while raising an eyebrow.

"The blessing and curse of being the Red Ranger," he chuckled, sparing a quick moment to smile back at her, "Seriously though, if you want to do the Caribbean, that's fine."

He got back to work and Chrissy watched him scribbling away at the papers and datapads for a minute. "Martin, we haven't even decided on which island yet."

"Uh huh."

She crossed her arms and rolled her eyes gently, "Are you even paying attention anymore?"

"That's nice sweetie," he answered absently while working.

"You know... I was thinking the island of St. Maarten might be nice," she said with a teasing smirk, "I hear they have some nude beaches."

The Red Ranger paused and dropped his stylus pen before looking up at her, "Wait... what?"

He was met by a gale of laughter on the other end of the line before he heard his own Nova Morpher sound. He stopped again and looked back to the screen apologetically, "Hey... sorry Chrissy. Duty calls."

"Go," she nodded with a smile, "The world isn't going to save itself."

"Hold that thought about St. Maarten," he added with a wink before ending the chat, "I'll call you when I get back."

As he rose from his seat, he threw on his duty jacket and quickly headed out the door toward the Command Tower. "All right then. Time for a little side-trip."

* * *

When the light of the transport faded, the six Nova Rangers found themselves near a large fountain at the base of the National Museum of Art in Barcelona, Spain. They could already see some fires burning and terrified civilians and tourists scrambling for cover while cars drove away from the scene. Over the comms, General Caldwell spoke to them directly, "Rangers, be advised we haven't picked up any definite signs of an Omega Trooper. We're only detecting a few signs of a small enemy infantry force but there are some unusual returns coming back on our sensors."

"That's odd. how did such a small force cause this much damage?" Bharata frowned in confusion.

"Do you have any visuals on them?" Jake asked as he prepped his sniper rifle.

"Not yet Jake," Lucy replied from Atlantis Base Ops, "We're working on it. Stand by."

As a few more straggler civilians hurried past, Martin caught the arm of a panicked older man and spoke to him in fluent Spanish. They exchanged a few sentences and the Red Ranger nodded to let the man escape. Erin raised an an amused eyebrow, "You speak Spanish... in the proper Castilian way. I'm impressed Captain."

"My mother's family came from from Madrid," he said grimly while leading them up the stairs toward the garden plaza and entryway leading to the National Museum, "I guess some of it rubbed off... plus it comes in handy at knowing when your Mexican neighbors are insulting you."

The Rangers exchanged a tense chuckle as they hustled up the stone staircase. Martin pointed forward, "That man said the attacks were coming from just other there at the entrance to the museum."

The Nova Rangers stopped in front of the main pathway leading to the National Museum and halted in surprise when they saw five people standing together looking at the museum as if planning to attack it. There were four men and one woman. They wore gray loose fitting shirts and pants and all of them held Xeno blaster staffs in their hands. Ella was the first to call out to them, "Hey! What are you doing here? This place isn't safe!"

The five figures turned around slowly and regarded the Rangers calmly. Upon seeing their faces, Martin froze in place as all the color drained from his face. His heart was gripped with shock, terror, and confusion, all at the same time. The man at the center of the strangers' formation smiled quietly and called back, "You're right. It's not safe... for you."

"No... it can't be..." the Red Ranger murmured in dread. He shouted back, "Is this some kind of sick joke? You're not supposed to be here! Who are you?"

"Captain... what's wrong?" Erin asked in confusion, "Do you know these people?"

"Of course he does," the stranger answered as the three other men and one woman walked closer. That was when the Nova Rangers recognized that one of the intruders looked just like their CO. "Don't you recognize your old squad leader?"

"You're not Mike Avery!" Martin shouted back despite feeling his entire body tremble, "You're an imposter!"

Mike gave a devilish smile, "Now now Martin. Maybe the 'other you' is a fake, but that's not how you're supposed to greet your old friends. It's been so long and we've missed you... Amir Hassan, Li Kim, and even Marie LaPointe."

Erik swallowed hard, "He's not serious... is he? Are those the original Alpha Rangers?"

"No! They're phonies!" Martin insisted angrily, "The Xenos are playing some sick game! You're not real!"

Mike Avery shook his head with a sigh and reached for a wrist bracer along with the others, "That's where you're wrong old friend. We're going to show you just how real we are."

In a flash, the five, activated the devices and appeared to morph into Power Rangers themselves. They all bore the earlier designs of the Alpha Ranger suits with a white capital Alpha letter on the front, a v shaped visor, and black boots and gloves. Unlike the Nova Rangers, their armor didn't have metallic armor pieces and instead were more of a lighter spandex like fiber. Also unlike the Nova Rangers brighter more vibrant colors, these Alpha Rangers bore a somewhat darker more subdued hue of the colors Red, Blue, Green, Silver, and Gold.

The Red Alpha Ranger shook his head and sighed, "I'm afraid it's time for the Nova Rangers to step down. We're going to start by taking this city for the Warmaster and if you stand in our way, we won't hesitate to destroy you either."


	14. Attrition

**Mission 21: Part 2**

As the enemy Rangers began to stride forward, the Nova Rangers stood their ground and reached for their own morphers in unison. As they morphed into their own battle suits and shimmered with colorful light, they answered the Alphas with their own call, "Energize!"

The Xeno Rangers halted and took a moment to size up the situation while the humans regrouped to square off against them. As the Nova Rangers began facing down their opposing color, Jake did a quick headcount and gave a shrug, "Well look at that. They didn't even bother recruiting a Sixth Ranger. I almost feel offended."

Erin shifted over and changed formation so that Jake now stood against the Silver Alpha Ranger, "Tell you what, you can fight Evil Martin while Ella and I double team the girl. Sound fair?"

Jake sighed and took a reluctant fighting stance, "I should really keep my big mouth closed sometimes."

Before anyone could add anything further, the Alpha Rangers rushed forward and locked in battle with the Nova Rangers. All along the front gates of the National Art Museum, the two teams of Rangers engaged in fierce hand to hand fighting. At the battle's outset, both sides looked to be evenly matched, nimbly blocking and countering each others' punches and kicks.

Bharata and the Green Alpha Ranger named Li were both exceptional martial artists and barely kept up with each others' blinding fast attacks and reversals. Nearby, the two big Blue Rangers Erik and his foe locked horns in more of a battle of brute strength and grappling power. In some ways, they almost looked like two great bucks pushing and wrestling against each other for leverage.

At the other end of the field, both Erin and Ella worked together to keep the Gold Alpha Ranger Marie LaPointe on the defensive, and despite their overlapping attack combinations, they were unable to land a solid hit on their slippery and evasive foe. Meanwhile, Jake fought a back and forth fight against the Martin clone, or rather the younger version of the Red Nova Ranger. The Xeno Ranger had a rather unrefined but unpredictable fighting style which kept Jake off balance and made it hard, especially since the Silver Nova Ranger preferred to avoid close range combat as much as possible.

While the other Rangers were engaged in battle, the two Red Rangers did battle near another fountain. They evaded the other's kicks and countered each other's punches before becoming momentarily tangled in a cross arm block. The Red Alpha Ranger Mike Avery snorted, "Your fighting style has gotten a lot better. I can see why you're wearing the red now."

"Shut up," Martin grunted as they broke loose, "You don't know anything about me, or the original team."

Mike laughed and drew forth a modified vibroblade, brandishing it toward his opponent, "Of course I do. You were the youngest rookie on the squad. Bright eyed, idealistic, and naive. You looked up to me. You learned from me because you wanted to be just like me."

Martin backpedaled, "I... I did... I still do... I'm not the same person. Things changed. I changed."

"No Martin... you didn't change," Mike countered as he swung the blade to keep the Nova Ranger off balance, "You might be older and have more experience. Hell, you might even know a thing or two about leadership, but you're still the same deep down. You're just a scared little boy who's just trying to play the part of a Ranger for everyone else. You take that morpher away and you're just a nobody."

"You're lying! That's not true!" Martin shouted in fear as he pulled his pistol and fired several shots.

Mike deflected them with his blade, "You're afraid of Warmaster Hellspont and what he can do... aren't you? You're afraid of losing this whole war and letting your friends down. You're afraid of them getting killed. Most of all... you're afraid of all the dark and terrible things you've bottled up inside for fear that you might become as vengeful and monstrous as the Warmaster himself... you and the Xeno Machina are not all that different after all!"

The Red Nova Ranger faltered under his enemy's relentless barbs and psychological attacks. For a few moments, he was seized with fear, indecisiveness, and self doubt. That was all the Alpha Ranger needed as he disarmed Martin and pummeled him with several fierce blows. The false Ranger finished with a powerful slash that sent Martin reeling backwards and toppling to the pavement in pain as his suit gave out and demorphed. As the bruised and demoralized Red Nova Ranger stumbled on the ground, his enemy loomed over him menacingly, "What a surprise. You're still a disappointment. If you can't even defeat me in battle, how do you ever expect to best the Warmaster?"

The Alpha Ranger reached down and grabbed Martin by the neck, lifting him up in a choking hold, "I guess it doesn't matter, does it? Because I'm going to kill you first."

The Red Xeno Ranger was silenced as Erik knocked aside his own foe and charged over to aid his commander. In mid-stride, he called his panzerfaust mace and struck a glancing blow on the Red Xeno Ranger to knock him back several meters. Erik took a moment to help Martin steady himself on one knee while the other Nova Rangers disengaged from their own fights. They had struggled and fought their foes to a momentary stalemate, unable to gain any sort of advantage either since they were evenly matched with the cyborgs. As the two teams regrouped and squared off, Mike laughed toward Erik, "What are you going to do Blue? Think you can do any better than your sorry excuse for a C.O. over there?"

Erik gripped his mace and radioed Atlantis Base, "Dr. Beckett? Requesting emergency extraction. Beam us out, centered on my position."

Just before the emergency beam out procedure was activated, Erik fired off the warhead of his mace to explode on the ground in front of the Xeno Rangers to surprise them. As the Nova Rangers made their escape and teleported away, The Xeno Rangers were thrown backwards and took a moment to regain their footing. The surprise attack had caught them off guard and there was some minor damage showing up on their sensors as a result of the blast.

Amid the dying flames and ruined pavement, the Red Xeno Ranger scowled and looked to the skies deciding it was best to withdraw for repairs as well. While the other Rangers had fought an inconclusive battle, he at least had made a statement to his human counterpart. One of his comrades asked aloud, "Should we continue attacking the city?"

"No. They'll be back. We'll take the time to make our own repairs. When we face those Nova Rangers again, we won't let them get away."

* * *

Meanwhile back at Atlantis Base, the Nova Rangers made their way off the transit platform. Martin staggered unevenly as Erin and Jake both steadied him by the shoulders and helped him down the ramp. By now, a few medics who were standing by came over to help. Per the protocols of emergency beam-outs, a few medical personnel and armed marines were always called to the transporter room in case any of the Rangers were seriously hurt or if there were any other threats following close behind.

In that moment, Martin shrugged off the hands of his fellow Rangers and tried to signal to the marines to stand down. The enlisted security troops lowered their weapons and came to attention giving their salute to the ranking officer but martin was stopped by the medics, "Captain? Are you all right?"

He tried to wave them off too and not let on how shaken he had been from the battle with the Xeno Rangers, "I'm fine, thanks. I'm just a little shaken up is all."

"Try again," Erik replied from behind, "Sir, I saw you get your head beat in by that Xeno Ranger. You should slow down and breathe."

The other younger Rangers all looked on with concerned expressions forcing Martin to pause and consider their feelings about this as well. His attention was brought back as one of the medics placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, "Captain Sterling? Maybe you should just come with us to the infirmiry? We'll just check you out to make sure you're okay."

Seeing he was once again powerless in this situation, the Red Ranger relented and gave a sigh before following the medics off to the infirmary while the other Rangers looked on feeling just as tired, shaken, and demoarlized at the moment of the new threat at hand.


	15. Survivor's Guilt

**Mission 21: Part 3  
**

The next afternoon, the five younger Nova Rangers all gathered in the R&D lab to pass the time and wait while Lucy Beckett and Julian Wilson worked to install the long awaited upgrades to their morphers. The two engineers had spent the better part of yesterday working on configuring special crystal nodes within the morphers. Although it was complete, Julian had been left with the task of running safety diagnostics and going over the circuitry with a fine tooth comb.

As he did his duties over a laptop connected to the morphers, Lucy worked on her other special project: the Red Ranger's custom weapon. As she put the finishing touches on it, Jake Massey ambled over and gave an inquisitive look, "Hey Dr. Beckett, what have you got there?"

Lucy took a cloth and began to polish the new weapon that she held up. In her hand was a heavy silver colored blaster pistol. It had sleek futuristic lines with a large muzzle and a black handgrip. Near the base of the weapon was a round cylinder fitted with a power cell showing it to be based on the design of a revolver type pistol. "Rangers, I present to you the Nova Magnum."

From where he was sitting, Bharata gave a low whistle to express his approval, "Oh wow… that is one sweet looking gun Dr. B."

Jake smiled in amusement while he quipped toward Lucy, "I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. You Yanks do have an innate proclivity for ridiculously powerful firearms."

"Considering the global war we're fighting? I'll bet you guys are glad that our Second Amendment is still on the books, huh?" Lucy smiled quietly before setting the gun down. She took a moment to study it with a long thoughtful look and sighed, "You know… after yesterday's meeting, I hope this helps to cheer Martin up. He was really hurting yesterday."

Erin nodded quietly and folded her arms as she leaned on a nearby storage cabinet, "I know what you mean. I caught him as he was finishing breakfast this morning and he hardly said more than five words to me beyond hello and good bye.

Ella stood at another lab table nearby and idly fiddled with some instruments, "In a way, I sort of understand. I mean, that must have been a nightmare battle scenario. I couldn't bear the thought of any of you guys dying… or even the idea that I'd actually have to fight you either."

Erik glanced up and drummed his fingers while thinking over Ella's words. It had given him the start of an idea but he decided to mull it over for a bit. "You know, among the other members of our team I probably spend the most time with him but he's never really talked much about his time as an Alpha Ranger. It's too bad we don't have any insight into them right now because it might help the next time we go into battle."

Erin got up and walked over slowly, "Dr. Beckett, you and Martin have been friends for a long time. What can you tell us about the original team? Did you know any of them?"

Lucy looked to the Yellow Ranger before sitting down at a chair. For a minute, she had a far-off look in her eyes as she thought back to memories from over five years ago. "I can't say I was really that familiar with any of the other Rangers. I was busy with grad school at the time. But whenever I spent some time with my Dad, I made some small talk with them. I remember their Red Ranger Captain Avery… he was very outgoing and charismatic. I could see why they made him team leader. My Dad said Captain Avery was also very brave, but on occasion he was brash and reckless too."

She furrowed her brow as she tried to remember past meetings with the other Rangers too, "There was Amir… very soft spoken and spiritual. He was the calm in the eye of the storm. Their Green Ranger Li… he was kind of a prankster. He was always laughing and always making jokes. He wouldn't strike you as a military person, but my Dad said that Li still knew when to get serious and focus when he had to."

"What about the girl on the team?" Ella asked curiously, "I think Marie was her name?"

Lucy nodded, "Oh yeah... I always kinda liked her. She was very much the brains behind the team when it came to tricky covert situations. She came from the Intelligence branch so she had a sharp mind and an even sharper wit... which is surprising because she was kind of a shameless flirt too. I remember Martin admitted to me later on that he had a little bit of a crush on her, but was always kinda intimidated as well."

The other Rangers all laughed at the thought before Bharata scratched his chin, "It's kinda hard to imagine. It sounds like Martin was a very different person when he was a new Ranger."

Lucy smiled, "In some ways, yes. Before the Xenos came, we were all more hopeful and idealistic. We laughed more and dreamed about what was beyond the stars. We thought that we could take on any danger that was out there. The odds of a powerful alien enemy actually coming to our doorstep seemed almost unthinkable. When the fighting started and we realized just how weak and unprepared we were… well, I think we all changed a bit, both in our hearts and in the way we viewed the world."

Lucy looked down and balled her hands, "I remember when Martin was taken back here to the medical ward after that battle in Washington DC. He looked so broken, helpless, and alone. I remember wanting to help. I didn't work here yet and I wasn't planning on joining the military, but I had to do something. Ever since then, I've been doing my part to help him fight, and now to help all of you too."

The others shared quiet smiles with her before Julian sat up from his workstation in excitement, "Hey! That's it! The morphers are ready to go!"

He reached over and unplugged each morpher before handing them back to their respective owner, "With these new super-modes to your suits, you should be more than a match for those Xeno Rangers. The upgrades should make all of you a lot stronger, faster, and better protected than ever before."

"Excellent!" Jake grinned as he admired the slight modifications to his morpher's exterior. "I can't wait to kick some alien arse with this."

Julian held the Red Nova Morpher with a look of uncertainty, "Umm… what about this one? Should I call Captain Sterling?"

Erik shook his head and calmly took the morpher, "No. That's okay Julian. I'll give it to him."

"You look like you have some kind of plan," Ella noted as he began heading for the door.

"Just leave it to me," he said with a reassuring wink, "I think I know a way I can get him back onto the frontlines with us."

Once he departed, the others could only look to each other and hope that Erik's plan would indeed work out for the best.

* * *

The sounds of impacts against a punching bag echoed in one of the empty training rooms of the base as Martin Sterling hammered away at it. After having suffered a dismal defeat in Barcelona the other day, he had to try and do something… anything, to clear his mind and blow off some steam. He continued to circle the punching bag, pummeling it with kick and punch combinations until he heard the doors of the training room open. He let up his assault and took a breath before turning to see Erik enter by himself.

The Blue Ranger was dressed down to his workout clothes and he carried a small gym bag. He walked over, giving a quiet nod in greeting, "Martin. There you are. How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine," the Red Ranger replied flatly before moving away from the punching bag and out toward the training mats, "I wish everyone would stop acting like I took some huge crippling injury. I've taken harder hits on the battlefield before."

"That's not what I'm talking about," Erik said as he idly began to put on some sparring gloves. He tapped his own head, "I meant how are you feeling in here?"

"How am I supposed to feel?" Martin grumbled while adjusting his padded gloves and starting to go through some slow martial arts katas, "I was blindsided yesterday. I was forced to fight those cyborg monstrosities wearing the faces of my old friends. People I cared about... and in some cases, admired."

"You mean like Mike Avery? The Red Alpha Ranger?"

Martin nodded, "When I first joined the squad, I was the youngest and most inexperienced member. I still knew I was a good candidate for the team, but hell… I was just a kid. I didn't know what I was doing. Mike was always the first one to help me out and look after me. He was a good leader and I wanted to be just like him one day."

"Did you ever think that maybe in some ways you already are?" Erik asked him, "You've taken charge of our team, trained us hard, and look after us still. I don't think there's any Ranger on our squad who doesn't admire you or look toward you for leadership. We need you, sir."

Martin sighed and continued his katas, "During my battle with the Red Alpha Ranger yesterday, he said some things that got me thinking. I know he was saying it to shake me but I couldn't help but wonder if maybe he was right. Maybe I'm still scared. I'm still scared of losing others. Maybe I'm holding on to the past and I just can't let go... just like the Warmaster. After these past five years, maybe I'm not as strong or ready as I thought I was."

Erik nodded solemnly and walked out to the training floor. He squared up and took a fighting stance, "Well... then let's find out. Fight me."

Martin stopped, "Erik, what are you doing? I don't want to spar with you right now."

"That's too damn bad sir. I'm going to start throwing punches at you whether you're ready or not," Erik answered as he edged forward and took a more aggressive posture. "If you want to stop being afraid of hurting those Xenos wearing the faces of your old friends, then you have to stop being scared of seeing your own friends getting hurt too."

The Blue Ranger threw a few forceful punches which Martin barely dodged or stopped with some forearm blocks. "Knock it off Dobermann!"

"Or what?" Erik challenged again as he broke the Red Ranger's guard and knocked him over backwards with a hard kick. "I thought you didn't want to fight."

Martin growled and picked himself up slowly. As he took a fighting stance again, Erik continued with the taunting, "You know, for someone who likes to keep his personal guard up, you sure do a crappy job in real life hand to hand."

The two clashed again in a flurry of blocked punches and kicks. As the fight intensified, Martin staggered Erik by blocking a kick with his leg and clipping the Blue Ranger on the chin with a quick right hook. "You might want to take your own advice there big guy."

Erik rubbed his chin with a mild scowl and moved to attack again. He tried to use his size and reach to go on the offensive and drive Martin back, but the Red Ranger countered his opponent's next attack and gave him a swift punch in the side of the ribs. The next moment, he kicked out Erik's stance from behind the knee and put him in a rear arm lock.

"And another thing… I don't like being backed into corners either," Martin said in warning as he tried to force Erik to give up.

Erik snorted and used his greater physical strength to muscle the Red Ranger aside. Once free, he threw an elbow and stunned Martin with a blow to the side of the head. Erik finished the motion by grabbing his leader and tossing him hard to the floor again with a judo style throw, "Come on! What are you waiting for? You're holding back! Do I really look weak to you? Are you really too scared to hurt me?"

Martin scrambled to his feet only to lock into another grapple with Erik. The Blue Ranger forced him to one knee and put pressure on his neck with a squeeze, "Maybe you're right. Maybe you shouldn't be leading the squad after all. If you're just going to fall apart so easily, then why don't you just give up? Go sit and feel sorry for yourself."

Erik squeezed tighter, "Go ahead. Give up on the Nova Rangers and spit in all of our faces… in General Caldwell's, and most of all Lucy's."

Having been moved to anger and galvanized by those words, Martin struggled against Erik's choking grip before giving him a furious stunning chop to the collar and reversing his grip. In a heartbeat, Martin used his new leverage to hook an arm around Erik's neck and throw him over the shoulder so that the Blue Ranger landed flat on his back. The big German gave a grunt as the wind was knocked from his lungs. In the heat of the battle, Martin scrambled to pin him while raising a fist above his head threatening to land a finishing knockout blow.

The two men remained in that position for a long moment before letting their tempers and fury subside. Upon realizing he had come close to actually hurting Erik in anger, Martin stopped and lowered his fist. He took a deep breath and offered a hand to help his comrade, "Erik, are you okay?"

The Blue Ranger took a minute to catch his breath before giving a nod, "I'm alright. Just a little winded."

The two slumped down and sat back to back taking some time to cool down and rest. Martin panted and wiped his brow, "I'm sorry. I almost smashed your face in back there."

"After I just tried choking the life out of you? I think you were justified," Erik chuckled hoarsely.

Another companionable silence fell over the room before Martin spoke again, "I know what you were doing Erik. Escalating things… trying to get me to fight for real."

The Blue Ranger answered, "If you can fight me for real, then there's no reason you can't fight some stupid droids wearing the masks of your friends. Everything they say and represent is fake… but this…"

Erik gestured to them, the room, and the space around them, "This is real. I'm not doubting your abilities or your worthiness as a friend Martin. Neither should you."

The Red Ranger took a moment to let that sink in and he smiled, "I'm glad you decided to come and kick my head in a little bit. I appreciate it Erik. Thank you."

"Yeah… well, it's what best friends do," Erik smiled giving him a gentle elbow.

Martin looked to him and shared another tired grin before Erik helped him up and led him over toward the blue gym bag lay on a bench. "Captain, I brought something else for you."

He opened the bag and pulled out the Red morpher before returning it to its owner, "Dr. Beckett finished her upgrades to our suits and weapons. She even has a piece of special battle gear prepared just for you too... if you still want it."

Martin put the morpher back on his wrist and studied it for a moment before nodding, "Thanks Erik. If anyone is going to help us overcome these enemies, it'll be Lucy."

"The weapon is only as good as the hand who wields it," Erik countered gently, "And we're going to need our commander for this fight too. Do you feel ready to save the world again?"

The Red Ranger took a deep breath and closed his hands around the morpher for a second. He looked to his friend and gave a resolute nod, "All right then... what are we waiting for?"

* * *

 **A/N:**  
 **To answer the Guest reviewer in the previous chapter, I don't really plan on doing a teamup between Myth and Science Fiction. In the case of this series, it's set in a separate continuity than my other OC ones. I also think the fantastical elements of the Myth series would really clash and be hard to pull off alongside Sci-Fi which tends to need a little more grounding in reality. Thanks for the question though!**


	16. Supernova

**Mission 21: Part 4  
**

Flames from several fires burned on the streets as crowds of terrified civilians fled from the five invaders who had returned. The cyborg Alpha Rangers had all suited up and casually made their way down the streets of Barcelona toward the large church of Sagrada Familia. While they made their way toward the famous landmark, the evil Rangers left a swath of destruction and chaos in their wake. They had pulled out their blasters to shoot up nearby shops and buildings as well as cut up a few traffic lights and electric poles with their vibro-blades.

They continued on their vicious raid and looked on in amusement as many frightened Spanish civilians scrambled to take refuge under the spires of the large basillica looming over the area's skyline. Before the fake Alpha Rangers could advance, they halted as a platoon of local UNAF soldiers and police officers gathered to form a picket line. The humans all had their weapons drawn and leveled at the oncoming attackers but the evil Rangers didn't seem to pay them much mind. The Red Alpha Ranger waved his team forward causing the defenders to open fire with a volley of bullets and las bolts. As expected, the weapons did not do much to deter the Alpha Rangers and they waded through unharmed.

While the local defenders tried to stand their ground and keep from panicking, the Blue Alpha Ranger picked up a nearby car which was parked on the curb and hurled it into the center of the soldiers' formation. The UNAF troops scattered and jumped clear but before they could regroup again, the Silver Alpha Ranger pulled his blaster and fired several shots into the vehicle. The car exploded into a fireball throwing the human defenders in a panic while knocking down several of them who had standing nearby. As the troops fell back in retreat, the evil Rangers moved to follow them.

Upon nearing the basilica of Sagrada Familia, a powerful plasma bolt cut the air and struck the Red Alpha Ranger in the shoulder causing him to recoil violently for a moment. The Xeno Rangers all turned and looked in surprise as they saw the six Nova Rangers appear from the sidestreets and gather to face them. Jake held his smoking Fusion Striker in rifle mode while the Nova Rangers grouped up into a defiant formation, drawing the line in the ground.

The evil Red scoffed as he did a headcount and saw that all the human Rangers had returned for a rematch battle, including Martin. "Nova Rangers... I thought you'd have already learned your lesson. You can't beat us. You're too weak... especially you Captain Sterling."

"No. That's where you're wrong," the Red Nova Ranger called back defiantly as he stepped forward to meet his counterpart. "You underestimate us. We're a lot stronger now than ever before... especially me. I just needed my new teammates... my friends to help remind me of that."

The other Nova Rangers exchanged approving smiles and nods toward the sentiments, especially Erik. The Red Xeno Ranger laughed scornfully and removed his helmet to reveal his fake human features. The other evil Rangers followed suit and gave predatory smiles to try and weaken Martin's resolve again, "Mushy feely friendship crap? You have gone soft Martin. I was hoping for more of a fight this time."

Before they could step forward, the Red Nova Ranger swiftly pulled his las pistol from his hip like a Western gunslinger and fired several shots at the feet of the enemy to halt them. "That's far enough you fraud. If it's a fight you want, then we'll give you one. Rangers?"

The other human Rangers stepped up in line and joined their leader as they reached for their morphers, "We'll skip the opening act this time. Everyone? It's time to go Supernova!"

The team activated their morphers in unison with a call of " _Energize_!" before they detonated into a brilliant flare of prismatic light.

A surge of energy spread out across the field as the Nova Rangers morphed, except this time the transformation went a step further. Amid the swirling light, the six Rangers were endowed with significant changes and upgrades to their battle suits. Over their original suits, the Rangers found new lightweight plate armor covering most of their bodies, including their shins, thighs, torsos, and arms. The armor was sleek, and futuristic, but at the same time very lightweight and flexible. The armor and helmets were colored white but each of the Rangers' signature colors were incorporated into the armor's trim and accenting along with a few glowing lines of neon colors which had been built in as well.

"Whoah! It worked!" Jake cheered while looking in awe at their spectacular transformation, "Check us out!"

"I feel amazing… and strong!" Erin added as she stretched her arms and clenched her fists, "Like really strong."

"Rangers, this is your new Supernova mode," Lucy announced proudly over the comm link. Back in Atlantis Base Ops, the scientist was beaming over her achievement and bearing witness to the successful activation of her work, "With these powers you'll be stronger, faster, and much more durable than you've ever been before."

"Thanks Luce. You really outdid yourself this time," Martin smiled as he took a moment to admire his pristine upgraded battle suit.

The false Alpha Rangers all stood frozen in surprise at the sudden escalation of force by their human enemies before retaking their fighting stances. The Red Alpha Ranger growled, "It doesn't matter. Your shiny new suits will not be enough to stop us. You don't have the same strength and experience as we do."

"I think you're forgetting one important thing," Erik called back in defiance, "You're not actually the Alpha Rangers. You never were!"

"Let's prove it to them. Rangers?" Martin called as he took point in their formation.

The Supernova Rangers took ready stances and surprised their foes by igniting the engines of the small streamline jetpacks which had been built into the backs of their torso armor. The humans took off into the sky and jetted forward with great speed, catching the Xeno Rangers off guard with leaping attacks.

Erik was the first to tackle his counterpart to the ground and roll off of him in a jetpack assisted maneuver. The Blue Alpha Ranger growled and tried to attack Erik again but this time Erik used his enhanced strength and speed to catch his foe's strike. Using the same moves Martin pulled on him in their sparring session, Erik kicked out one of the Xeno Ranger's legs from behind before twisting his enemy's arm in a joint lock. While the cyborg struggled in a vulnerable position, Erik called his mace weapon to his free hand and brought it around to smash the enemy Ranger away as if he was batting a baseball off a tee.

Meanwhile, Bharata was already locked in battle against his Green counterpart. The Alpha backpedaled and tried to keep up with blocking the flurry of unarmed strikes from Bharata. The Green Nova Ranger had now gone on the offensive and drove his opponent back before the Alpha quickly drew a vibro-blade and took a desperate swing. Bharata swiftly dodged and called a weapon of his own, his Disruptor Staff. With the mastery of a patient and skilled martial artist, Bharata twirled his electrically charged weapon and disarmed his foe before pummeling him with a series of punishing strikes.

Nearby, Erin and Ella clashed again with the female Gold Alpha Ranger. Having learned their lesson from the last battle, the two girls gave the Alpha plenty of room and fought more defensively. As Erin fired her jetpack, she swooped by with a flying punch to try and force her to commit. The Gold Alpha dodged and pulled her blaster pistol instead, but that left her momentarily distracted from the Pink Nova Ranger. Ella pulled her Electric Whip cable and snared the Alpha's weapon hand. She gave a hard tug and threw the restrained Alpha off balance just long enough for Erin to land and turn around with her Sonic Cannon. The Yellow Ranger took aim and fired a powerful burst of concentrated sonic waves which slammed into the Gold Alpha and sent her into a nearby stone pillar.

At the opposite end of the plaza, Jake had engaged the Silver Alpha in battle and also took a defensive posture. As he blocked his enemy's blows, Jake waited for just the right moment to surprise the Alpha at close quarters and then pulled his Fusion Striker in blade mode. As he slashed the surprised cyborg in the chest, Jake decided to be unpredictable too and fired his own jetpack to slam into the Ranger and send them both careening toward a low stone wall by the church. At the last moment, Jake fired the retrorockets and halted while the enemy Silver kept flying backward. As the Alpha hung defenseless in midair, Jake converted his weapon back into rifle mode and fired several shots which struck his foe the moment he slammed into the wall. Amid the small explosion which resulted, Jake pumped a victorious fist, "Yeah! Get wrecked mate!"

As the battles raged around them, the Red Alpha Ranger donned his helmet again and the two Reds locked in battle once more. As they blocked each other's first flurry of kicks and punches, Martin fired his jetpack and used it to give him blinding speed to maneuver around his enemy. The Alpha halted in confusion and flailed blindly as the Red Nova Ranger landed several powerful blows, concluding with a crushing haymaker punch to the face. The Alpha staggered backward and shook his head out with a growl, only to see the front of his visor had been severely cracked. "You'll pay for that one rookie."

The Xeno threw himself forward and pulled a vibro-blade in an attempt to surprise Martin and slash him. The Red Ranger dodged the swipes and grabbed the Alpha's weapon arm in a swift motion. He gave a twist and wrenched the weapon away before reversing his stance and sending the Alpha flying backward with a roundhouse kick. As the Xeno recovered back to his feet, he saw Martin holding the stolen vibro-blade and snorted, "Of course, the Red Ranger's got a sword. You going to use my own weapon against me?"

Martin tossed the blade aside and reached for his morpher to call his own weapon, "No thanks. I've got my own."

In a flash, his Nova Magnum was beamed directly into his hand. The Alpha only had a moment to look at the sleek revolver before Martin twirled the pistol and fired. Despite the forceful recoil of the blaster, Martin held the gun with practiced aim and unloaded a searing bolt of superheated plasma which blew back the Alpha in a cloud of sparks and flames. As the Red Alpha went end over end backwards into a truck, Martin turned and charged into the thick of the other Ranger battles to assist his friends. As he seamlessly joined into each duel and moved in harmony with each of the other Nova Rangers, he fired several covering shots on the run with his Magnum. Each supercharged bolt found their mark and caught the enemy Rangers by surprise. The blindsided Alphas were all sent spinning to the dirt in injured heaps.

Finally, both Ranger teams regrouped around their leaders. The battered Alpha Rangers staggered back into formation showing signs of severe damage to their suits with burns and circuitry hanging out in places. As they confronted the pristine Supernova Rangers, Martin gestured to his team, "All right everyone. Let's wrap this up. Erik?"

The Blue Nova Ranger gave a salute and reached for his morpher, "Dr. Beckett, send in the Prism Cannon!"

In a flash, the Nova Rangers' field gun was transported to their hands. Before the injured Alpha Rangers could advance further, the humans loaded their weapon and fired a finishing shot at the imposters along with Jake helping to aim to the gun. A large cloud of fire erupted on the streets of Barcelona and several windows on the narrow sidestreets shattered from the force of the blast.

The Rangers lowered the cannon and waited a moment to survey the wreckage. To their shock, one figure emerged from the smoke and flames. The mangled form of the Red Alpha cyborg slowly staggered forward with murderous intent. Much of the Ranger suit had been burnt away and the ruins of the cybernetic body underneath were all that remained. Viscous oil poured from several shattered sections of the torso as well as the stump of a missing robotic arm. In its one remining hand, it still carried a charred blaster pistol and tried to raise it in a last act of defiance.

"Don't do it!" Martin warned the cyborg as he stepped forward alone to confront the Xeno.

"Martin, stand by for a new Photon Charger," Lucy called over the comms as she transported a special power cell to him. He swiftly swapped out the cylinder of the weapon and loaded the new power cell in for a finishing shot. After locking it into place, he spun the cylinder to charge it and then raised the gun upward with a twirl.

Just as the cyborg fully raised its blaster, the Red Ranger leveled his own pistol and beat the Alpha to the draw. "Lights out!"

He fired a powerful red plasma burst from the Magnum which split into six projectiles and spiraled in a trick pattern before reconverging on the enemy all at once. The cyborg was hit full on by the finishing attack and engulfed in another great fireball before being completely annihilated.

The other Rangers watched in astonishment as the flames and the spectacle died down in the streets. There had been a lot of collateral damage in this battle, but that was something for brass to sort out. The important thing was the people of Barcelona were safe and the Xeno Rangers had been stopped. As they gathered around their commander, Jake gave him a light nudge in the arm, "That Magnum packs some serious firepower. Nice shooting Captain. I'm impressed."

"When a sniper is praising your marksmanship, then that's saying something," Erin laughed in agreement. "Where to now?"

The Red Ranger gave an exhausted look to the large historic church they had defended and gave a slow nod, "Let's go home everyone. There's something I've got to take care of."

* * *

Later that night, the sounds of crickets filled the cool evening air of Washington D.C. as Martin and Lucy walked together down the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. They headed down the walkway toward the large rectangular Reflecting Pond that sprawled across a great lawn and led to the Washington Monument. The great white obelisk which loomed over the area was already lit up by spotlights and its image was reflected in the tranquil pristine waters of the pool. In an unusual stroke of luck, the area in which the two walked was largely devoid of other tourists and local residents passing through. It was a perfect opportunity to enjoy the relative peace and quiet of the place, especially for what they were doing.

As they neared the edge of the pond, Lucy looked at the small bundle of flowers that she carried in her hands. She turned to her friend and asked quietly, "Martin? Are you ready to do this?"

The Red Ranger nodded and knelt down by the edge of the pool. He set down four small votive candles in a semicircle before lighting them and stepping aside. Lucy then placed the flowers within the semicircle as a sort of symbolic offering. As she stepped back, they heard the sounds of footsteps approach from behind. The two turned around and looked in surprise as the five other Nova Rangers approached from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to join them by the water's edge.

"Everyone… what are you all doing here?" Martin asked in shock as his friends gathered around.

"We heard from Julian that you and Dr. Beckett had left to come here tonight," Erik explained. He glanced at the candles and the flowers sitting at the edge of the pool before giving a smile, "I see the candles and flowers, but something tells me this isn't some kind of date."

The other Rangers chuckled softly despite a mild frown from Lucy but Martin waved it off, "No. Not exactly. After our recent battle with the Xeno Rangers, it got me thinking about a lot of things. I wanted to come here to visit the place where my old team had fallen in battle several years ago… to just pay my respects."

Erin took a moment to admire the quiet and serene beauty of the plaza before giving a sigh, "I have to admit, it's a little hard to imagine that there was such a terrible battle here. This place is so quiet and pretty."

Ella nodded and stepped forward, "We're sorry about butting in tonight, sir. We didn't know. Still, I hope you don't mind if we stick around to show our support. After all, the Alpha Rangers were sort of our predecessors. In a strange way, I guess we sorta owe it to them too."

The Red Ranger gave a quiet smile and nodded, "Thanks Ella… and everyone too. I think the old squad would like that."

They stepped back as Martin turned to address the candles and flowers offered before the pool where the alabaster monument was reflected in it. He cleared his throat and spoke to the air. "Hey everyone... Mike, Amir, Li, and Marie. I know it's been a while since I've spoken to you. After everything that's gone on recently... well, I figured this was probably the best place to try and do it. It's been several years since I've come back to this place... mostly by choice. I had thought the memories of our battle here would be too much and in a way I guess I had been running from that problem. To think, all that running and here I am in the same place I started."

He paused a moment, searching for the right words, "In a way, I hadn't forgiven myself for panicking in battle. Even though it wouldn't have made a difference, part of me still kinda wished that I had died with you guys that night... and I'm sorry for that. I think you should know that I made a promise... that I would get revenge on the Xeno who did this to you, but until then I have another promise to keep. I promised that I'd keep my new family here safe from harm. I hope you'll understand."

He nodded quietly and turned back to face his friends, "Thanks for being here everyone. I appreciate it, and I don't want you to dwell on this anymore. I promise I won't."

Martin put an arm over Lucy as she came over to give him a comforting hug while Erik clapped a firm hand on his shoulder, "It's getting late and we haven't had dinner yet. Maybe we should all go out to eat somewhere?"

"I think that's a good idea," the Red Ranger replied with a smile, "Lead the way."

As the seven friends departed from the monument grounds, the candles continued to burn gently, acknowledging the offering while bringing their peaceful healing light to a place that had once been covered in darkness.

* * *

 **A/N:**  
 **A little inspiration and credit here goes to that old Lightspeed vs Cyborg Rangers episode. I'm sure the oldschool fans can appreciate that one. Also, major credit goes to the Dreamworks animated show Voltron Legendary Defender. The design of the Supernova Armor is essentially borrowed from the heroes' space suits in that show. Sorry, I couldn't help it. It just looked too cool. ;)**

 **Coming up next will be a more light-hearted breather episode following up on a previous plot point. An attempt at having a relaxing Caribbean vacation will be severely tested by bad luck, meddling teammates, and an aquatic Xeno invader. Until then!  
**


	17. Trouble in Paradise

**Mission 22: Part 1**

The gentle pounding of the waves filled the air as the ocean waters churned against the piers of Atlantis Base. It was a warm sunny morning in late Spring as Sgt. Jake Massey sat near the docks toying with a datapad in his hand. Nearby, his fellow Rangers Erin Reilly and Erik Dobermann were busy hovering over a device Julian had helped build in the lab. The box-like device had a small radio dish and sensors sticking out of it which were aimed at the ocean. The Yellow Ranger sat with a pair of headphones which were connected to the device. She listened closely trying to distinguish differences in the sounds while making sense of them in hopes that her skills as a Communications Officer would come in handy.

They had been working to make improvements on a passive sonar device in hopes they could use it to detect underwater threats to the base. Erin frowned as she listened and gave a sigh, "Erik, I'm losing the signal feed. Can you boost the power on this thing?"

The Blue Ranger fiddled with the machine before giving a mild frustrated curse in German. Erin raised an eyebrow, "Dobermann, are you sure you were listening to Julian's tutorial in the lab? You know what you're doing?"

"Of course," Erik replied in mild sarcasm, "See here? The glockenschpukle's connected to the fuegelmiester, which feeds into the schnitzelpramis..."

Jake simply laughed and rolled his eyes while the other two started bickering. As his friends continued their petty argument, Jake looked at the datapad that his father had given him when he visited for Martin's "almost" court martial. Col. Massey had said that there was important information on the pad, but didn't say what. No doubt it had something to do with the political power play that he and Jake's mother had helped orchestrate against the tyrannical UN administrator who had briefly took over the base.

The only problem was, the datapad was password protected and contained heavily encrypted security features. Jake had kept quiet about the datapad and tried to open it for months but he couldn't help but wonder if maybe this was all some kind of mysterious test that his parents had put him up to. Otherwise, they would have just flat out told him, right?

He tried a few more possible passwords and gave up for the day as he looked up to see Ella approach the pier. The Pink Nova Ranger greeted him with a friendly wave and sat down beside him on the bench, "Hey Jake, what are you up to?"

Jake put the datapad away and gave mild shrug, "Right now? Nothing much. I guess you could say I'm supervising."

Ella glanced over to where Erik and Erin were still arguing with one another over the sonar device, "I see. I take it the calibrations to the deep sea sensors aren't going so well?"

"That stuff is truly beyond my pay grade," Jake chuckled, "I'm not great with high tech gizmos so I couldn't tell you."

Ella furrowed her brow in concern, "Well, with the way things are looking we may need to really try and get that thing up and running soon. While I was on my way here, Dr. Beckett sent me a heads up from Ops. Looks like we're going to be going deep sea diving."

Jake raised an eyebrow before she continued, "It seems a bunch of Xeno drop pods may have landed in the ocean and we might have to help the Navy out with searching the waters."

"Really? That sounds kinda interesting, and fun!" Jake said but Ella shook her head.

"No way! I am not going down under the waters in a submarine or a zord or whatever. No thank you!"

The Silver Ranger frowned, "Wait a second... you're not afraid of water or something are you? I know you know how to swim."

Ella looked away in slight embarrassment, "No! I just... I get really uncomfortable with the idea of going into deep water and drowning, okay? I've always kinda had an irrational fear of that since I was little."

"Yet here you are in Atlantis Base, floating in the middle of an ocean?"

Ella punched his arm in annoyance, "Jake! Lay off it will you?"

The Silver Nova Ranger raised his hands in apology before giving a sigh, "All right. I'm sorry. Let's go gather the others, shall we? Where exactly is Caldwell sending us to this time?"

Ella grimaced, "The island of St. Thomas in the Caribbean. Some UNAF patrol boats will rendevous with us in the port city of Charlotte Amalie."

"Wait a second... isn't that where Captain Sterling said he was going on vacation to?"

The Pink Ranger nodded, "Yup."

"Bugger... he's not going to be happy about this one bit," Jake muttered as he headed off to gather the others.

* * *

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, the hotel room door opened and Martin Sterling walked in lugging two suitcases. The Red Ranger had dressed down to a casual red polo shirt and khaki cargo shorts and moved to drop the load in the corner. As he did a quick inspection of the room, his girlfriend Christina Lasky followed him in dressed in summer clothes as well: a short white tennis skirt and a blue athletic tank top. She immediately headed to the windows and opened the curtains to get a better look at the surrounding beaches on the Caribbean island of St. Thomas. As bright natural sunlight filled the room, she gave a content sigh and a bright smile, "Oh Martin, we picked the perfect resort spot! Look at this great view of the beaches! It's gotta be the best spot in all of Charlotte Amalie!"

"Well, we saved a ton of money by not paying airfare here. I figured why not go for something a little nicer," the Red Ranger replied as he continued getting their things unpacked. "Thank God for transporters right?"

"I'm surprised your friend Julian was willing to let you use it that way," Chrissy laughed.

"Ah well, that's simple. Julian's a really nice guy... and maybe I'll have to owe him a big favor in the future too."

Chrissy looked out again toward the waters while musing aloud, "So... what should we do first? We could do some sightseeing around town? Maybe hit the beach and take a ride on some jetskis? Or go parasailing?"

"How about I get back to you in an hour or two?" Martin yawned as he flopped down backwards on the bed and sprawled out, "Right now, just relaxing and taking a nice long nap sounds good to me."

Moments later, he gave a grunt as Chrissy walked over and flopped down right on top of him with a mischievous smirk, "Oh come on Martin! Don't tell me you came all this way to the tropics with me for a romantic getaway when there's all this awesome stuff to do just so that you can take a nap?"

"Babe, after the last several missions I've been on lately, that's exactly what I plan to do," he mumbled while refusing to budge.

Chrissy gave a little pout before reaching over and planting several light kisses on his chin and lips, "Okay, then I'm just going to have to keep you awake."

"Nice try," he said cracking an eye open in between kisses, "I know what you're trying to do here."

"Is it working?"

He smirked suggestively, "I think you're going to have to do a little better than that."

She gave an amused huff and gently slapped him on the shoulder before getting back up, "Okay fine. You get a little shuteye, and I'm going to get some sun and do some reading on the balcony."

"Good plan," he yawned again, "Keep an eye out for any paparazzi lurking on the rooftops."

She stuck her tongue out at him and walked out on the deck with a magazine. As they settled in, Martin sighed again with a content smile listening to the sounds of the nearby ocean from the windows. It was kinda like being back in Atlantis Base, except with no worries of training sessions, team meetings, or settling petty arguments between his Ranger squad. At the moment, everything was perfect... until he heard the chime of his Nova Morpher on the nightstand.

He kept his eyes closed while frowning and blindly reaching for the shelf, "No! Of all times, not now!"

He recovered the morpher and hit the comm button, "I'm here."

On the other end of the line was Julian, "Captain Sterling? Sorry to bother you while you're on break sir, but General Caldwell wanted me to relay a message. He said the other Nova Rangers are being deployed to Charlotte Amalie where you are."

The Red Ranger sat up on the bed abruptly, "What? Why?"

"We've detected signs that several Xeno drop pods may have landed in the ocean not far from the island of St. Thomas. The Rangers are coming to help scour the area and dredge up the pods if necessary."

Martin rubbed his temples, "Either the Xenos are purposefully screwing with me or their aim has gotten worse. If a bunch of pods did land in the sea, I'm sure all the aliens on those things must have drowned by now, right?"

"Uncertain Captain. You should know that the beaches might issue an alert and be closed down for a while. Caldwell wants you to be on standby just in case," Julian answered apologetically.

Martin glanced over to where Chrissy was reading on the deck, unaware of what was going on. He debated on how to tell her or if he should say anything at all, "Right, thanks Julian. Keep me posted and do a check up call in an hour."

Julian's voice replied with a questioning tone, "Are you worried something might happen, sir?"

"Yeah," Martin answered with a sour expression, "If this trip gets ruined, I'm worried Chrissy might get pissed and make me the next casualty of this war."

* * *

As the sun began to set over the horizon of the ocean waters, a large metallic head emerged from underneath the waves to look around. The Xeno Machina's newest Omega Trooper Octopod bobbed in the water and scanned its surroundings. The copper colored warrior possessed a humanoid torso and legs equipped with hydro jets, but the rest of its body had a distinct design resembling a deep sea octopus. It had a large bulbous head and its two wide shoulder slots housed its long metallic tentacles which it extended out to help tread water and gauge the air temperatures.

In the far distance, it could make out the lights of the port city of Charlotte Amalie which were starting to turn on amid the evening skies. The Xeno stealthily dipped back below the waves and descended into the depths where a group of several alien landing vehicles were waiting. These new submersible landing tanks were going to have their first trial run on this planet and Octopod was in charge of leading the way. No doubt a populated island location where humans liked to spend recreation time would be the perfect target to wreak havoc, not only because it would be cut off from immediate help, but because the people there would be mostly defenseless as well. It gave one of its tentacles a wave forward the convoy of deep sea tanks continued forward in the dark waters slowly but surely to their next target.

* * *

Later the next morning, Martin and Chrissy walked out toward the nearest beachfront for a day of surf and sun. After breakfast they had taken a brief walk window-shopping around the city's commercial district getting a sense of what souvenirs they might want to pick up for friends and family back home. As they walked on to the sandy beaches now dressed in their swimwear, Chrissy turned to Martin and gave him a little nudge in the side, "Hey, is everything okay? You've been kinda quiet all morning."

"Oh sorry," he said apologetically, "I just had something on my mind."

He hadn't told her about the potential Xeno activity in the area because it was unconfirmed and it might very well be nothing. Besides, the rest of the squad was going to be looking into it and doing a routine patrol, but still... he couldn't help but be a little concerned about it.

"I hope it's not about work. You came here to relax, remember?" she scolded him mildly, "We promised each other we'd have a good time this week, right?"

"You're completely right," he nodded in contrition before gesturing over toward some concession stands, "Tell you what, why don't you go find us a spot on the beach and I'm going to grab us some cocktails. We'll have some drinks, get some sun, and go for a swim."

She gave a thumbs up and cheerfully headed off while Martin stopped at a beachfront stand and picked up a pair of margaritas. As he headed back to the beachfront, he stopped as he came across a large iguana sitting in his path blocking the way between some beach chairs. "Hey! Get outta here! Shoo!"

The iguana stood its ground and turned its head giving a defiant hiss forcing the Red Ranger to take the long way around the walking path. As he headed back onto the sands Martin mumbled to himself, "Stupid iguana. Thinks he owns the whole island or something..."

When he reached the meeting point, he was shocked to see Erik and Ella already there. The two Rangers were talking and laughing with Chrissy and looking like they were out on a fun day at the beach too. Erik had put on a pair of blue swim trunks and Ella was in a pink bikini. Chrissy turned and gave a wave, "Martin, look! Some of your friends decided to stop in and join us!"

"Oh joy," he said giving a pointed look toward Erik, "Captain? Lieutenant? What are you two doing here?"

"Oh it's been kinda quiet at the base lately so General Caldwell gave us all some leave time," Erik lied toward Chrissy, "Martin had been talking non stop about how great this place was going to be, so we just had to check it out for ourselves. Hopefully you don't mind us being around for the day?"

"Not at all Erik," Chrissy answered happily, "I'd love to hang out with you guys again since we were all kinda busy in Rome last year."

Seeing an opening for a strategic distraction, Ella gave her a small push toward the water, "Hey Chrissy, let's go where there's a little more open sand. Maybe you can teach me a few new gymnastic flips or tricks that I can use in battle? Come on!"

While the two girls headed off to practice some tumbling moves in the sand, Erik snatched one of the margaritas from Martin's hand and took a sip, "How thoughtful. You even brought me a drink."

Martin frowned and raised an eyebrow quietly while Erik continued to joke, "Wow, this one was mixed kinda strong. Was that by design?"

Martin sighed in exasperation and paused to take a long drink of his own margarita. While they watched the girls do backflips and cartwheels, Martin spoke to Erik quietly, "No new developments? You guys are standing guard here?"

Erik nodded with a more serious attitude now, "Bara, Erin, and Jake are with a few Navy boats sweeping an area of the seas nearby. They'll call us if they find anything. As for Ella, well... she kinda has a weird phobia of deep water so I decided to keep her company here."

"Aww, that's really sweet man. Was that by design?" Martin teased back.

The Blue Ranger gave a mild huff and shoved him lightly in the shoulder, "Seeing as how we're telling lies to cover for you, let's just call it a truce for now, huh?"

"Sure thing big guy," Martin answered finishing his drink and handing the empty cup to Erik, "The next round's on you. Until then, I'm going to join the girls and do some handsprings."

* * *

Meanwhile, Bharata Timothy peeked over the rail of the Navy patrol boat before walking back toward the center of the bow where Erin was busy with the special passive sonar device. Jake sat perched on a higher lookout spot with his trusty rifle keeping watch for any signs of Xeno activity in the waters with his sharp eyes. The Green Ranger sat down beside Erin and tapped her shoulder, "Any luck yet?"

Erin removed one of the headphones and shook her head with a sigh, "No. I'm afraid not. It's been several hours and we've still got nothing. I... wait... what's that?"

Bharata waited quietly as Erin listened closer into the headphones and studied the sonar returns. The Yellow Ranger frowned, "That's odd. I could swear we were picking up something that doesn't match any of the oceanic sound patterns in the Navy's database."

"Maybe it's a sea monster," Bharata joked, "Or Jaws?"

Erin frowned reprovingly, "Don't be an idiot Bara. I'm serious here. I think we should check this out. Maybe we can call in the amphibious attack zord to get a better look down below and track the sound?"

A short while later, the three Nova Rangers had boarded the amphibious attack zord and submerged beneath the waters to get a better look down below. Not only was the zord well suited to underwater activity, but the Rangers didn't have to wait long before reaching the bottom of the water. They were in a relatively shallow area and visibility of their surroundings was good. While Erin taken the driver's seat of the zord, Jake manned the weapons and Bharata sat down at the sensor arrays. After doing some scans, the unusual sonar returns came through again, this time trailing away towards St. Thomas. Erin frowned, "That's weird. It seems as if the anomaly is headed toward the island."

"Forget that. Look at this," Bharata exclaimed in horror as he pulled up some visual scans of the ocean floor, "It looks like there's some kind of column of underwater vehicles on the move. I'm picking up large clouds of sand getting churned up in distance."

"You don't think those are Xenos... do you?" Jake asked in concern.

Erin frowned and took the controls of the zord before throttling forward, "There's only one way to find out."


	18. Beachhead

**Mission 22: Part 2**

Erik Dobermann shielded his eyes from bright afternoon sun as keening seagulls glided above the populated beachfront. As he returned to his towel on the warm sands, he sat down by Ella and handed her a water bottle. They took a moment to enjoy the warm sea breeze and the sounds of the waves while watching Martin and Chrissy return from a swim. The two were halted halfway in to shore amidst a spontaneous splashing fight all while sharing some laughs and sneaking a few kisses.

As she sat drinking her water, Ella gave a mild sigh which Erik picked up on, "Hey, you okay?"

The Pink Ranger glanced over and gave a sheepish smile, "Yeah, I'm fine."

"You're sure?" Erik prodded, "You sounded a little blue at the moment and trust me, I know all about blue."

Ella sighed, "Oh Erik, that's a terrible pun. I was just thinking about some things while I was watching Martin and Chrissy. They're a cute couple, don't you think?"

Erik shrugged calmly, "Sure. Why? You jealous or something?"

Ella wrinkled her features in a thoughtful expression, "Well… maybe, but not in the way you might think. I guess I was just thinking that Martin's lucky to have someone to come back to… a relationship to bring you back to reality and make you remember what it's like to be a carefree civilian again."

"We all chose this job Ella. You're not getting second thoughts, are you?" Erik asked.

She shook her head, "No. Of course not. It's just that sometimes our line of work can get a little lonely because people don't understand what we do, or what it's like to be us. I guess I'm just missing that sense of intimacy, you know?"

Erik nodded slowly, "What about your family back home? You parents in Milan? Your Zia and Nonna in Rome?"

"That's not exactly the same and you know it," Ella chuckled to herself as she kept watching the waters, "Erik, how long have you been single?"

"I beg your pardon?" the Blue Ranger balked for a moment.

"I was just wondering if you get lonely too. Have you had any other relationships after that girl Ana? The girl who gave birth to your daughter?"

Erik grimaced slightly, "Well… not exactly. It's been several years but as far as real relationships? No long term meaningful ones anyway. I guess once Sarah was born, she just kinda became my whole world and stuff like dating again just took a backseat to all that. Sounds kinda lame when I say it out loud, doesn't it?"

Ella smiled gently, "No. I don't think so. I think Sarah's very lucky to have such a devoted father who's willing to sacrifice a little bit of a love life for her. I don't feel as bad anymore either because I'm sure you kinda know how I feel… being caught between responsibilities and your own selfish feelings."

Erik fell silent for a moment and considered saying something comforting when he noticed a violent churning coming from the waters. The wakes of several large objects began to cause the water to swell as they neared the shallow beachfront while other beachgoers paused and looked in fear at the unexpected surprise. Before anyone else could react, a group of several heavily armored amphibious vehicles burst from the waves and began making their way up the edge of the beach.

The Xeno war machines churned up sand and water causing the civilians and tourists to flee in terror from the assault. The transport tanks fired a few warning shots into the air as some of the hatches opened and clone soldiers began pouring out. Amid the chaos and calamity of fleeing civilians, Ella grabbed Erik's arm and pointed to the new Omega Trooper climbing out of the water. The cyborg octopus-man slowly got its bearings and deployed its robotic tentacle arms to cause more destruction. The Pink Ranger swallowed hard, "Where are Erin and the others?"

"No time for that right now," Erik answered grimly while reaching for his morpher, "We've got to do something now. _Energize_!"

While the Blue and Pink Nova Rangers morphed, Martin and Chrissy were caught up in the chaotic churning waters. Because she was shorter, Chrissy struggled to keep her head above the water and hooked her arms around Martin's neck, clinging to him to keep herself afloat. In her panic, she spat out some water and shouted "What is going on here?"

The Red Ranger turned his head and watched as the Xeno landing tanks made their way ashore to deploy soldiers. He saw flashes of Blue and Pink light from the beach meaning Erik and Ella had suited up for battle, but where were the others? This situation did not look good at all. For now, all he could do was try to help his friends. He nudged aside some water from his chin as he took hold of his frightened girlfriend, "Chrissy, listen to me. Just hold on tight."

In a flash, Martin activated the Supernova mode of his morpher and called his upgraded battle suit into play. He fired his built-in jetpack and burst from the ocean in a spay of water while carrying Chrissy. They flew a short distance back to the relative safety of the beach before he set her down on her feet. She could only blink in shock at everything that happened, "Your suit... it's…"

"Awesome? I know," he said grimly while turning back toward the battle, "Get to safety. Head for the hotel or somewhere! Just hurry!"

She gave a nod and began sprinting up the sands to join the rest of the fleeing civilians in their escape. The Red Ranger dashed back into the fight, assisted by the jets before stopping to join his two comrades.

"Any idea where these low lives came from?" Martin asked as he called his Nova Magnum to his hand.

"No idea sir," Erik said while kicking aside a clone trooper and drawing his Panzerfaust mace. "Atlantis Base has been notified and Caldwell says the other Rangers are on the way."

Ella pulled her whip cord weapon and viciously lashed aside several more clone soldiers at range. As the three Rangers grouped up back to back, they activated the force shields in their morphers to block out a hail of enemy small arms fire around them. "How do we play this boys? Do we go for the tanks, infantry, or squid-face over there?"

Erik patted his armor-killing weapon, "I'll slow those tanks down. Ella, you want to dance with the enemy commander for a few minutes?"

"I'll mop up the clones and back you up in a sec Ella," Martin called behind his shield.

The three burst from their formation and attacked their targets. Erik maneuvered around some enemy turrets and fired the warheads of his mace at some of the heavy enemy tanks. Despite the weapon's power, it could not fully crack the armor of the landing tanks but left large gaping wounds in several of them. Having decided to switch tactics, Erik fired a few mortars at the weaker treads of the vehicles and managed to cripple a couple of them by mangling the bottoms.

Nearby, Ella charged the Omega Trooper Octopod and nimbly ducked around the lashing tentacles of the enemy. As she rushed under another tentacle strike, she counter-attacked with her own whip and gouged out a chunk of the Xeno's plate armor from its chest. In a fury, Octopod lashed its arms around a more violent chaotic pattern to ward off the Pink Ranger. Ella immediately fell back on defense and continued to evade the attacks by tumbling clear and out of range. While she did, she utilized a few new tumbling moves and spinning somersault maneuvers that Chrissy had shown her earlier that day. While it may not have been clean enough and graceful enough to win any gold medals, it was good enough to get the job done. Ella skidded to a halt on the sandy ground and swiftly pulled her Nebula Blaster with her free hand. She pulled the trigger and threw back the octopus warrior giving it a face full of plasma. She gave a self satisfied nod and glanced over to where Martin was finishing his battle with the enemy ground troops.

The Red Ranger plowed through the clones dual wielding his Magnum and regular blaster pistol. Using the enhanced speed and agility granted by his suit, he was able to easily dodge through the enemy crossfire and retaliate while on the move. As he tumbled and somersaulted through the clone soldiers, the Ranger swiftly gunned them all down and finished off the last couple with a spinning maneuver.

As he landed by the water's edge, Martin looked over to search for Ella and help her out when all of a sudden, a new disturbance arose from the ocean. The Red Ranger froze and stood in complete shock as a large armored zord burst from the waters nearby. It hit the inclined lip of the sandy shore going at full throttle and went momentarily airborne amid a spray of water. Martin watched in slack jawed amazement as the amphibious assault zord flew clear over his head and landed on the sands nearby amid a thunderous spray of sand. As the zord did a power-slide and skidded to a halt, the Omega Trooper and the enemy attack vehicles halted to stare at the spectacle.

Inside the zord, Jake nearly hyperventilated, "Jesus Erin! Are you a maniac? You almost flattened the captain there. Bara, this is all you fault!"

"What? How is that my fault?" the Green Ranger exclaimed indignantly.

"You're the oldest one here and you let the woman behind the wheel!"

The half-joke caught Bharata off guard and he snorted to try and suppress a laugh. Erin glanced over her shoulder with a dirty scowl and put the zord into gear, "Oh that's really funny. Just keep laughing. Once we wipe out all the Xenos here, you two jokers are gonna be next."

Jake composed himself again and turned to the weapon controls to target the other enemy landing craft on the beach. As Erin got the zord moving again, Bharata helped to target the enemy tanks while Jake fired the guns. A spray of sand erupted as a volley of heavy plasma cannon blasts hit a landing craft and punched holes into its thick hull plating.

"All right! Here comes the cavalry!" Ella cheered with a grateful wave toward the amphibious zord that drew off the attention of the enemy armor units.

"Let's stay focused here everyone," Erik called as he regrouped with the Red and Pink Rangers to confront the octopus shaped Omega Trooper. "We've still got an uninvited guest to the pool party here."

Octopod extended its metallic tentacles and lashed them into the nearby sands in a menacing fashion. To the Rangers' surprise, it used the air jets on its feet to fly forward into attack range. The Xeno extended its arms and caught the Rangers off guard by snaring them and constricting their limbs. After giving a squeeze, Octopod tossed the dazed heroes back to the sand while setting up for a new attack.

"Huh... that was unexpected," Erik groaned as he shook his head and regained his senses. "What now?"

"How about we try cutting this guy down to size?" Ella suggested as she drew her plasma sword and ignited it, "Maybe leave him with a few less arms?"

"Good idea Ella," Martin nodded as he readied his Magnum pistol with a Photon Charger cylinder, "You and Erik take point. We'll give em the old one two."

Erik drew his own blade and sprinted forward with Ella to attack the Xeno from two sides. Octopod backpedaled and desperately flicked out its tentacle arms to try and ward them off but the Rangers pressed their attack. Erik and Ella attacked together and sliced through the tentacles with well timed slashes of their weapons causing the severed limbs to fall to the sands. Octopod recoiled from the injuries as oil gushed from the wounds turning just in time to see Martin load his pistol and fire a supercharged shot. The six spiraling blaster bolts struck the wounded alien and sent it flying backwards into the sand leaving it in a severely damaged state.

While that battle raged, another one between the armored vehicles on the beach continued. Several of the Xeno tanks returned fire and a few shots slammed into the shielded hull of the zord. As the vehicle shuddered, Erin gritted her teeth and continued maneuvering through the sand, both trying to evade the enemy line of fire while offering better positions for her comrades to retaliate. Jake continued to man the weapon turret and pour volleys of fire on the enemy vehicles before glanced over, "Hey Bara, do we have anything else we can throw at these blighters? Their water tight armor is really soaking up a lot of damage."

The Green Ranger flipped through the control screens before finding a new option, "Hey, check this out. We've got some torpedoes."

The zord shook again as it took another hit and Erin pulled another drift maneuver to get around an enemy vehicle. With all the heavy weapons fire and tank treads in play, she was afraid to see just how torn apart the tourist beach was going to look after the fight. "If those torpedoes are going to be able to bust those landing craft, then arm them now Bara. Jake, you know what to do."

"Yes ma'am," he answered as he saw the new missile weapons loaded. The zord changed direction and headed back out into the water causing the other enemy tanks to give chase. Once they were in the water, the Rangers turned the weapon turret and fired several torpedoes in rapid succession at their targets. The Xeno tanks were caught off guard and unable to react as the torpedoes slammed into their hulls and caused all of them to erupt into spectacular fireballs. The zord drove through the last of the enemies and back to the beach before stopping behind their comrades on the field.

As the zord ground to a halt, Martin, Erik, and Ella regrouped and drew their pistols to put away Octopod for good. However, they stopped in shock when they heard the sound of the amphibious assault zord firing another torpedo. In an instant, the last torpedo flew over the heads of the three Rangers and slammed into the Omega Trooper driving it back into the waters. The propellers of the underwater missile kicked in and pushed Octopod deeper and deeper into the harbor before finally exploding in a spectacular blast.

The Xeno warrior was obliterated in the resulting explosion and a large mushroom cloud of water erupted from under the waves. Not far from the blast, a Carnival cruise ship had been docked at the harbor's eastern edge. All the tourists aboard were watching and filming the spectacle from the top deck until they were sprayed by the resulting explosion of water too. Martin, Erik, and Ella could only stand on the ruined beach and stare in surprise at what just happened while their other three teammates gave cheers of victory from within their zord. Bharata raised a fist for a bump and laughed aloud, "Damn! Nice shot Massey. I think you probably drenched half the passengers on that cruise liner."

"Thanks Bara," Jake grinned while returning the fist bump, "Credit to where it's due though. Erin did pull some pretty awesome moves and drove exceptionally well… for a girl."

The Yellow Ranger stared at him with an incredulous look before leaping out of her chair to try and throttle him. The Silver Ranger could only laugh as she shook him by the collar while Bharata tried to restrain her. Amid the tangle of limbs, she huffed "That's it Jake! I've had it. You're going to pay for all your trolling today!"

As the Red, Blue, and Pink Rangers sat near the top hatch of the zord and surveyed the wreckage of the public beach, they could all hear the loud sounds of squawking and tussling coming from within the vehicle. Erik and Ella simply exchanged a puzzled look and shrugged while Martin pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. Although he was glad that the enemy had been stopped and everyone was safe again, he had a sinking feeling there was one last battle to fight and he'd be on the receiving end of that one.

* * *

Later that evening, part of the beachfront and a corner of Charlotte Amalie's harbor had been closed down for the cleanup crews while patrols of US Navy boats floated out in the distant waters to keep watch over the area. Evening was setting in and the heat of the day had slowly begun to dissipate. Fortunately no one had been killed in the attack earlier and only a small number of civilians had been injured, having been caught in the stampede to escape the battle. Tourists had checked in and all the locals were accounted for too. Despite the frightening and unprovoked attack by the aliens, the people of St. Thomas tried to take a deep breath and go back to their quiet leisurely way of life.

After sorting things out with some of the local authorities, Martin made his way back to the resort and was joined by his other teammates who were all back in their duty uniforms. They eventually found Chrissy waiting in one of the hotel lounges. She immediately sprung to her feet and hurried over to greet everyone. "Oh God… are you guys all right? Is everything okay?"

"The island is safe and we're fine," Martin began hesitantly, "The area around the resort here? Well… not so much."

Erin chimed in and tried to sound consoling, "For the next few days, all the surrounding beaches here and the harbor are going to be closed off to the public. Work crews need to clean up and rebuild while the military will do a review of the incident too."

Chrissy nodded slowly and studied the faces of the other Rangers, "That's why you guys were here, wasn't it? You knew the aliens were going to be in the area?"

"Well… not exactly," Bharata answered, "We caught wind that there might have been some Xeno activity in the area and we were sent to check it out. Unfortunately… the reports turned out to be true."

Chrissy glanced to Erik and Ella, "You two weren't here on leave, were you?"

The Blue and Pink Rangers shuffled their feet before Chrissy turned with a frown toward Martin. Her voice was starting to rise slightly "And you knew about all this? You let them make up stories right to my face and then you didn't tell me that there might be trouble here?"

She was starting to get worked up and glared at the Red Ranger with a visibly upset expression, "Martin! I can't believe it! What's the matter with you? You really thought it would be a good idea to keep your mouth shut about all this? What were you thinking?"

For a soldier who normally had no problems facing down murderous aliens or taking action in life or death situations, the Red Ranger winced and seemed to shrink a few inches under Christina's verbal onslaught. As amusing as it was to see their commander getting chewed out by someone else for a change, the rest of the squad couldn't help but feel a little sorry for him too. Ella raised her hands apologetically and intervened.

"Wait, hold on a minute Chrissy. I know you're kinda upset but if you're going to get mad, then the rest of us should share in the blame a little. We didn't really expect a whole invasion force to land on the beach and we had no idea things were going to go completely sideways either. None of us wanted to bother you guys on your vacation and didn't want you worrying too much. That's why we bended the truth."

Martin nodded in agreement, "Ella's right. Listen Chris, I know how much you were looking forward to this trip and having a great time. I know I should have said something, but I didn't want you worrying all week if the whole vacation may or may not get ruined if I had to deploy out again. That's no way to enjoy your time off either."

Chrissy took a deep breath and calmed down a moment before shaking her head slowly, "No. You don't get it Martin. I appreciate all of you trying to protect my feelings but that's not the reason why I was getting upset just now. You always trust your teammates and communicate with them in battle, right? That's what you have to do to succeed?"

The Red Ranger nodded as she continued, "I may not be a Ranger, but we're still kind of a team too. You and I. We have to trust each other and communicate about this stuff. I get why you didn't want me to worry, but if there was a potential threat here then I want to know too. I need to know. I already understand the risks of being in a relationship with you and I've accepted that. I always worry every time that you and your friends go out into battle, but in a case like this? I don't give a damn if the trip gets ruined or not. I just want you to trust me as much as I trust you to come back home alive."

Martin nodded quietly before he walked over and put his arms around her in an apologetic hug, "I'm sorry Chrissy. You're completely right about all that and I promise I'll do better about adding you to the briefing in the future."

"You forgot to mention, And I'm the luckiest guy in the world who has such a beautiful and understanding girlfriend that I probably don't deserve in the first place," Erin joked from the side with a gentle laugh.

"Thank you Erin. Dually noted," he sighed before turning to his team, "Everyone? I think I can handle things from here. You guys are all dismissed."

"Aww, for real? We've barely been here a day," Jake protested before Erik put him in a headlock and began dragging him out.

"Come along now Jake. We can spare a few more minutes to sightsee while you smoke a cigarette... somewhere else."

After watching the other Rangers depart and leave the room, Martin and Chrissy walked outside the lounge to stand at an outdoor balcony of the resort looking out over the harbor of Charlotte Amalie. Now that night had fallen, the evidence of the battle had been obscured and the sparkling lights of the harbor city glittered amidst the calm waters.

"You were right. At least we've still got the most beautiful view in all the city," Martin smiled as he put his arms around his girlfriend and gave her a long tender kiss. "You know... about everything that happened recently, I'm sorry again."

"That's okay," she grinned giving him a little poke in the nose, "You can start by making it up to me later tonight."

The Red Ranger paused a moment in confusion before he caught on to the innuendo, "Oh... I see. Umm, why wait?"

She gave a laugh and took his hand pulling him along back inside, "Well for starters, it's getting late and we haven't even eaten yet. First you've gotta buy me dinner. That's how this whole thing works, right?"

He simply laughed and followed her back inside realizing maybe the vacation wouldn't be a complete washout either. There were always beaches on the other side of the island to visit and several days left to jetski and parasail. As for right now, just having a nice quiet dinner out didn't sound like a bad idea at all.

* * *

 **A/N:**  
 **Thanks for reading all. I can personally vouch that watching the evening lights of Charlotte Amalie from the deck of a ship in the harbor is easily one of the most beautiful (and romantic) sights I've ever seen while traveling.**

 **Now that this little breather is out of the way, it's time to get serious again. A mistake from Erik's past starts catching up to him putting a strain on his team and placing himself at potential risk. Until then!**


	19. Rules of Engagement

**Mission 23: Part 1**

Summer had come to Atlantis Base and despite the cooling breeze of the surrounding ocean, the mercury of the thermometer continued to creep ever higher as the days wore on. After a particularly long PT session in the morning, Lt. Erik Dobermann Jr. sat basking in the cool air conditioning of the mess hall. The lunch rush had just died down and the room had grown quieter so he took advantage of the lull. He had pulled out an electronic tablet that he used for work and made a quick video call home to Germany. On the other end of the line, his young daughter Sarah sat busily regaling him with a story about how she won a prize for drawing one of the best pictures in her class.

"Just wait Papa. I want you to have the picture and Grandpa says he's going to help me mail it to you," she said excitedly while holding up the picture to the screen. On it, she had drawn a child's impression of Atlantis Base with crayons. He could see a few lopsided towers and buildings on a platform over blue ocean waves. A sun with a smiley face was in the sky while colorful fish and a smiling whale swam under the water. In the sky were a group of things that either looked like birds, or possibly fighter planes on patrol. He couldn't be sure.

"That looks great sweetheart. I can't wait to hang it up in my room. Thank you," Erik smiled while his daughter beamed proudly.

At that moment, Erik was joined at his lunchtable by the Pink Ranger who set down her tray, "Hey Erik. Mind if sit here?"

He shook his head and made room but Ella slid in next to him and peeked her head over into the screen to give a friendly wave to the little girl on the other end. "Hallo. Guten tag Sarah!"

Sarah waved and looked to her father before continuing their conversation in German, "Who's that woman Papa? Is that your girlfriend?"

Erik almost fumbled his tablet in surprise and gave an embarrassed look. It was in that moment, he was glad Erin wasn't around with her universal translator and that Ella did not speak German either. He shook his head, "No sweetie. That was Ella. She's one of my good friends and teammates and she comes from Italy."

"That's where pasta comes from, right?"

Erik laughed and shrugged, "I guess that's kind of right. I'll tell you what Sarah, I've got to get going now. I'll call you later tonight okay? I love you."

Sarah blew him a kiss and signed off while Erik put down the tablet and greeted Ella, "Hey. What's up?"

Ella began eating her meal and shrugged, "Not much. Just taking a late lunch break today. I saw an email saying General Caldwell wants to meet with all of us after lunch?"

Erik nodded, "Maybe he's got a new assignment for us. We've been cooped up here on post for the last couple weeks anyway."

Ella took another bite of her chicken salad sandwich with a thoughtful expression, "I wonder what exotic location he's got in store this time."

* * *

"Crimea?" Ella asked in disappointment during the conference at the Command Tower, "Are we really needed there on the peninsula?"

Caldwell gave a mildly apologetic look from across the table and shrugged, "I'm sorry I don't have a more interesting location to send you to this time, but you all should still have a lot to do. The UNAF wants to foster closer cooperation between its forces so that's why they're conducting war games there. They're hoping that joint training exercises between NATO countries and the Russian led CSTO will be a positive experience for everybody."

Martin crossed his arms and gave a mildly sour expression, "You'll forgive me for being a little skeptical sir, but I highly doubt that after a week we're going to be best friends with the Ruskies."

Jake laughed gently, "Ah yes. Nice to see things haven't changed much. It's been well over a hundred years since the end of the Cold War and the Americans and Russians are still at odds."

"I think frenemies is a more appropriate description for the current status," Erin added with an amused smile.

Bharata simply sighed and shrugged his shoulders, "Hey, I'm the only Asian non-NATO guy here. I've got no dog this fight. Bring on the Russians."

Caldwell gave everyone a slightly reproving look to quiet the table before speaking again, "All of you will be assigned to different units so that you can train with fellow specialists in your own fields. I'll be leaving you file folders here with your assignments and new written orders. If there's no other questions, the drills start tomorrow at thirteen hundred hours. Dismissed."

* * *

The buzzing of helicopter propellers filled the air as the Nova Rangers were beamed into a large UNAF airbase located just outside of Simferopol on the Crimean Peninsula. After a major political conflict in the early 21st century between Russia and the Western powers, Crimea had been declared as a neutral zone. When war with the Xenos broke out again, the UN military was allowed to set up a base there in order to respond to threats in the Black Sea region.

Upon their arrival, they met with the commander of the NATO forces there and were split up on different assignments. Martin had been tasked to fly air missions alongside a flight of Russian pilots while Jake and Bharata were sent to join a mixed recon unit and practice coordinating movements in the field. Fortunately, Erik and the girls were allowed to stay behind at the airbase to join some other specialists. While Erin headed off to a demonstration of new ways to jam enemy radio signals, Ella made her way to sit in on a presentation about cyber-warfare.

She walked with Erik who was on his way to join some of the other medics when she noticed a young woman in blue scrubs walk out of the nearby infirmary and stare at them. The woman was a little taller than Ella, attractive with fair features and had her hair tied up neatly. Based on her clothes and her bearing, she didn't appear to be in the military and was most likely some sort of civilian volunteer at the base. The blonde girl waved and rushed over directly to the Blue Ranger, "Erik? Erik Dobermann… is that really you?"

Erik froze and fell silent looking at the young woman with wide eyes as she stepped before him. "Ana… I…"

The two paused awkwardly and looked at each other before their emotions got the better of them. They both exchanged a smile before putting their arms around each other in a hug. Ella could only stand off to the side in complete surprise while piecing everything together. Did he say Ana? Was this really the AWOL mother of Sarah Dobermann? What was she doing here of all places?

Her question was vocalized as Erik let go of his old flame and stammered, "Ana… it's been years. You look great, I… what are you doing here? I didn't think I'd ever see you again."

Ana held on to Erik and looked away with a slightly sheepish look, "I… this is a shock for me too Erik, especially after all this time. I'm volunteering here as a nursing student."

Erik blinked in surprise, "You're in a nursing program? That's great… I'm happy for you."

Ella cleared her throat to remind him of her presence before the Blue Ranger gave an embarrassed nod, "Oh right… sorry. Ana, this is my friend and squadmate Ella Catalano. Ella, this is Ana… my ex-girlfriend."

The Pink Ranger extended a hand and spoke with a slight edge in her voice, "Oh yeah, I remember. Sarah's mother? Isn't that right?"

Ella didn't know where her slight aggressiveness came from right there. She did feel protective over her friend and the fact that the mother who just left Erik's daughter there just didn't sit well with her. Ana winced a moment and nodded back to Erik, "Ah… yes. Umm… how is Sarah by the way?"

Erik took out his wallet where he kept some photos and showed her quickly, "She's great. She's going on six this year and getting bigger."

"She's beautiful," Ana commented wistfully while looking at the photos.

Ella frowned quietly to herself. To Erik's credit, maybe he was more mature and forgiving about everything that happened, but for Ana to suddenly be taking interest in her daughter that she ran out on? That took a lot of nerve. As emotional as flippant as she could be at times, following orders and taking responsibility for one's duties was always something that Ella took very seriously.

Erik folded up the pictures and tucked them away, "Listen Ana, I'm here for the next several days to do some training with the joint forces and I was told to go to Med Bay 3."

Ana laughed gently, "Really? That's great! I was on my way over there too. The medical staff here was going to be assisting in orienting the combat medics."

"Lucky me," Erik smiled, "It seems I've already found a guide. It'll give us a chance to catch up more on the way."

Ana took his arm with a soft smile, "Yes. I'd like that."

As they turned and began to depart, Erik gave his teammate a friendly wave, "I'll see you later today Ella. Good luck with your training seminar."

The Pink Ranger forced a weak smile and gave a limp wave. She couldn't pinpoint it exactly, but now that she was there without her friends and teammates, she felt an unusual sense of sudden loneliness and it didn't feel good.

* * *

Over the course of the next few days, the Rangers were put to work in training exercises with servicemen and women from other countries. After one particularly taxing day, the Nova Rangers minus Erik gathered for an evening meal in the mess tent. While they sat, Erin was going on excitedly about one of the new weapons being tested. "Oh man, I feel kinda bad that Julian isn't here to see it. The newest ECM module we've been using to jam enemy communication signals is very cool."

"Sounds like you've been having a good time too," Bharata smiled while taking a sip of water from his glass. On our latest round of field maneuvers, Jake here has struck up a friendly competition with some of those Russian Spetsnaz guys… you know, their special forces commandos? They're having some fun seeing if they can approach a fixed position without Jake spotting them through his sniper scope."

Jake looked over to where Martin was sitting eating some instant rice, "How about you Captain? Have you been playing some more tag with the Migs today?"

The Red Ranger shook his head tiredly, "No, more like flying close air cover for their transports. Thing is, the Russian pilots in our sister flight seem to have a very different definition of close. With the way they maneuver, I'm surprised they haven't caused any midair collisions with us this week."

He took another bite of his meal before turning to the Pink Ranger, "Hey Ella, how's your week been going? You've been unusually quiet lately."

Ella looked up in surprise from some of the macaroni and cheese on her plate before waving it off, "Oh... sorry Captain. Everything is fine. I was just a little distracted."

"Something wrong?" Erin asked curiously but Ella shrugged.

"Probably not. I was just wondering where Erik has been. We've barely seen him these past couple days and he isn't eating with us tonight."

Jake swirled his fork around some of the mashed potatoes on his plate and chuckled, "I'm sure he's fine. It's not like we Rangers have to go do everything together all the time."

"I think your question has been answered," Bharata added helpfully as Erik left the serving line together with Ana and came over to the table.

The Blue Ranger smiled and took a seat beside Ella while Ana sat down next to Martin, "Hey guys, sorry I'm late. Ana and I got caught up in chatting and we hit the dinner rush. You guys all remember Ana, right?"

Erin gave a friendly wave and politely nodded along with the rest of the team, "Sure. I remember Erik mentioned he ran into you a few nights ago when we were having chow. We were just saying how we've barely seen him these last couple nights."

Ana laughed gently, "Ah, well... sorry about that. I didn't mean to be monopolizing your friend here. I was honestly pretty surprised and scared when I first saw him arrive here, you know? Even after all these years, running into your ex at work, finding out he was now a Power Ranger? I thought it would be kinda weird at first, but I've been having a really nice time catching up with Erik. It's almost like there hasn't been a six year gap since we've seen each other."

Bharata saw the potential land mine of mentioning Sarah on the horizon so he diplomatically steered the subject away, "So... Ana, looks like you're a nurse here?"

"Nursing student actually," she answered, "I'm finishing up some on the job training and my program back in Germany let me volunteer with the UNAF."

"Hey that's great," Jake smiled, "Are you thinking of joining up or something? Then you might see a whole lot more of Erik around since he's a trained combat medic."

Ana shook her head politely, "Oh no. I don't think military life is for me. It seems too uncertain and you need to be ready to pick up and move at a moment's notice."

Ella suppressed a growl and forked her noodles several times, "Maybe the military is too much duty and responsibility? Is having to follow orders and sacrifice not your thing?"

Martin glanced curiously at Ella while Ana gave a pensive look, "Maybe a little... I mean, personally I'm kinda done with living the crazy life. Right now, I'd like to just settle down a little and find something more stable and permanent. Erik here actually helped inspire me in a way."

She reached out and put a gentle hand over Erik's from across the table, "I had been thinking a lot about how he was always so giving and committed to the military and his duties. I wanted to start giving back to others and I decided to get some medical training like him. The world is at war with the aliens and people are going to need aid, right?"

"So are you really doing this for others, or yourself?" Ella challenged her.

"Hmm... to be honest? Maybe a little bit of both," Ana answered honestly. She looked down at her meal and realized she had forgotten her silverware, "Oh... excuse me. Silly me, I forgot my silverware back in the dinner line."

As she got up and left, Ella snorted quietly, "You also forgot your daughter back in Germany."

Erik heard the comment and frowned, "Ella! That was uncalled for! What is wrong with you?"

The Pink Ranger stood her ground and glared back at her teammate, "What is wrong with me? I think the question is, what is wrong with you? Don't you see what's going on here with Ana?"

"No, all I see is you acting all catty and rude for no reason," Erik hissed angrily while keeping his voice down.

"Well I get why you're being blinded. You've been giving Ana puppy dog eyes since you ran into her again a few days ago."

"I don't see what that has to do with anything," Erik snapped back, "Maybe I'm just surprised that I'm actually happy to see Ana again after all this time. Maybe she just reminded me of all the fun and good times we had before... and about how I've missed that. Isn't that kinda what we had talked about on St. Thomas?"

From where Martin sat, he felt someone nudge him in the arm and saw Jake holding a small bag of popcorn recovered from the mess line. He was chewing it along with the other Rangers and offered his leader some while they were watching the drama unfold. Martin glared incredulously at the Silver Ranger for a moment before taking a few kernels and turning back to the fight between Erik and Ella.

"Well if you're having such a great time with Ana here, I hope you don't forget about your duties to this team and to your daughter back home," Ella retorted angrily toward the Blue Ranger, "I honestly don't know why you're being so forgiving toward her. She abandoned you and Sarah for God's sake. Why? So she could party more? Maybe not take responsibility for her actions and be a flake?"

"We all make mistakes Ella. People can change. I had to change a lot too," Erik argued back, "If you don't think seeing Ana also hurts me a little bit inside and makes me think of Sarah too, then you've got it all wrong. Like I told you in Italy, maybe there's a part of me that still loves her, regardless of what she did. Damn it, she's still the mother of my little girl."

"So that's supposed to give her a free pass?" Ella sniped back.

"Listen, this is my personal life we're talking about and you need to mind your own business," Erik replied.

The Pink Ranger bristled furiously, "Fine! You can do whatever you'd like Erik Dobermann. I'm just trying to be your friend and look out for you here. If Ana winds up hurting you and breaking your heart all over again, then don't come crying to me or looking for any sympathy because you're not going to get any."

She rose quickly from the table and turned on her heel to storm out of the mess tent leaving the rest of the table speechless. Erik began to angrily cut up the meat on his plate while the rest of the team exchanged hesitant looks in silence. No one else knew exactly what that was all about or how to respond before Erin stood up and cleared her throat toward Martin, "With your permission sir, I'm going to go find Ella and keep her from doing something stupid."

The Red Ranger simply nodded and let her go before Ana returned to the table, "Sorry everyone. I'm back. I... oh, where did the other girls go?"

Martin, Bharata, and Jake looked at each other for a moment before the Green Ranger cleared his throat and decided to change the subject again, "They got called away on Ranger business. In the mean time, Ana would you like to hear about the time I jumped out of an exploding skyscraper in Manila?"

* * *

The next day, the Rangers all went back to the routine of their training exercises. After a dull morning of practicing defense programs for malicious cyber-attacks, Ella stepped outside of the command post to take a break and get some air. Even after going to bed early, she still felt drained after her big blow up yesterday, nor did she feel really keen on speaking to any of her friends at the moment. She didn't feel like answering any questions or having to explain herself either. She wasn't even sure what she was supposed to say at the moment.

Was she really just feeling upset because she was looking out for her friend? Of course there was some truth to that. She felt Ana was bad news and she didn't want to see Erik get hurt again, but did that really warrant her butting in and getting indignant on behalf of Sarah too? Why else would she have reacted that way? Sure she had been a little unhappy about Erik spending less time with the squad in favor of Ana, but it's not like Ella had any claim to that time either. It couldn't be because she was jealous... could it?

Her thoughts were interrupted as she heard footsteps coming from behind and turned to see Erin approach her. The Yellow Ranger gave a little nod and spoke in a very low key tone, "Hey girl. What's going on?"

"Erin? What are you doing here?" Ella asked in confusion, "I thought the communications test was on the other side of post."

Erin smiled and produced a small envelope from her fatigues, "Oh, that's simple. Two reasons. I got permission to go on a run and deliver this to the commander of your station... and I might have come to check up on you too."

The Pink Ranger huffed slightly and turned away, "I appreciate the gesture Erin, but you're wasting your time. There's nothing to worry about. I'm fine."

"You didn't seem fine yesterday," Erin said crossing her arms patiently, "That was quite a blow up you had with Erik over dinner."

Ella frowned and began fishing weakly for excuses, "Yeah well... it's hot out here. I was tired and hungry and maybe I was just a little cranky too yesterday night."

Erin raised an eyebrow and shook her head toward her friend, "If I didn't know any better, I'd guess you might have been a little jealous too? Is there something we should know about because the way you two were fighting was like watching a lovers' spat."

"There's nothing going on between Erik and I," Ella insisted in annoyance before her voice faded, "At least... I'm pretty sure there isn't."

"You don't exactly sound very glad about that," Erin pointed out.

Ella kept her back turned and looked up to the skies while taking several deep breaths, "Why should I be happy about that? We're the ones who have to follow the rules. We're the ones who have to put our feelings about things and people aside because our duties, or chains of command requires us to. I just want to do the right thing and now I'm afraid I damaged a good relationship I had with Erik."

Erin stood patiently and walked over to her comrade. Without saying a word, the Yellow Ranger gave her friend a comforting hug, "It's going to be okay Ella. Regardless of everything, we're still a squad and it's going to take a lot more than that to really hurt those bonds."

Ella sighed and gratefully accepted the comforting gesture, "Thanks Erin. You're a good friend."

Erin let go of Ella and dusted off her sleeves with a smile while trying to lighten the mood, "You know girl, we're going to have to do something about you. You really need to stop crushing on guys who are in our chain of command... and outrank us too."

Ella blinked a moment before giving Erin a gentle shove followed by a laugh. Before the girls could head back inside, they stopped as they saw a large bright object streaking from the skies toward the woodlands no more than a few miles from their position. As the bright meteorite neared and struck the ground in a deafening boom, the makeshift base sirens went off and the girls saw several tent flaps open up with soldiers scrambling about. A few helicopters sounded like they were being started while a pair of fighter jets roared by overhead toward the site of the blast.

Erin stopped a female enlisted soldier who was walking out to get a better view and asked her, "What the hell is going on here Corporal? Did you just see that big meteorite land just now?"

The corporal gave a nervous look and shook her head, "I'm afraid that wasn't a meteorite ma'am. Initial reports were coming in. That was a large Xeno transport pod."

The color drained from Ella's face as she turned toward the nearby horizon, "Wait... a transport pod? That can only mean one thing."

To the horror of the female Rangers and everyone else on base, the large transport pod collapsed as a giant Xeno battle titan emerged and rose over the treeline followed by several enemy fighter craft. Unless the joint NATO-Russian forces were going to be able to coordinate their efforts, their base camp was about to be left wide open to attack.


	20. Farewell to Arms

**Mission 23: Part 2  
**

As warning sirens began to blare, Erik Dobermann ran out of the base's med bay and looked around. He could see streaks of fire in the sky and heard the sounds of fighter jet engines screaming in the distance. As he turned his head, he froze in horror at the sight of a giant robot Xeno titan lumbering above the treelines toward the base. Soldiers, ground crews, and base personnel were all in a scramble rushing to grab weapons and get to their battle stations.  
The Blue Ranger grimaced. This was the worst possible scenario as the whole Ranger team was split up at the moment. All he could do was hope that they could coordinate their efforts like the joint forces here and keep the destruction from getting completely out of hand. He reached for his morpher and radioed Atlantis Base, "General Caldwell? Dr. Beckett? What's going on? We have problems here!"

General Caldwell answered first, "Erik, we've just gotten reports that a small group of Xeno transport pods have broken through the atmosphere and landed near your position. Telemetry is picking up a battle titan along with aerial escorts. I want you and the others to focus on taking down that titan."

"What about the Strigons?" Erik asked looking to the skies.

"Captain Sterling and the joint wing of fighters will take care of them. He and the others are returning shortly."

At that moment, Lucy took over on the comms, "Erik, gather as much of the team as you can. The Mechazord is being transported to your location right now but it's going to take some time."

Another voice cut in over the radio channel. This time it was Erin. The Yellow Ranger sounded almost breathless, "Everyone, if we're going to use the Mechazord I think we should coordinate our timing with an add-on accessory."

"What were you thinking Lieutenant?" Caldwell asked quickly.

Erin answered with a smile, "Sir, I suggest we use the electromagnetic jammer that we've been practicing with here. We may be able to reconfigure a focused ECM pulse to scramble that titan's systems and possibly disable it faster. That means a quicker easier Mechazord fight."

Lucy pondered it over for a moment before nodding back to Caldwell, "She has a good idea General. I think it just may work."

Caldwell hardened his features, "Very well Doctor. See to it and coordinate with Erin. Erik, you and the others are to deploy out in the zords. Until then, Martin will be covering you from the air."

"Understood," Erik said cutting off the comm link. No sooner did he do that was when Ana rushed out of the med bay with a panicked look on her face. She took Erik's arm fearfully.

"Erik? What's going on? What's happening here?'

The Blue Ranger hardened his features and took her by the shoulders, "Ana, we're under attack. I need you to find some shelter and stay down. My squad is getting called into action so we're going to take care of it."

Ana looked to him in surprise and saw how much he had changed since she last saw him in Germany. He had really become a different person since becoming a father and a Ranger. She nodded and touched his cheek before she headed back for the medbay, "Be careful Erik. I'll be waiting for you."

The Blue Ranger nodded and hurried off at a sprint to find the rest of his team on the base grounds.

* * *

A short while later, he was joined by Ella, Bharata, and Jake in a wide grassy field set aside for calisthenics and marching practice. Erin was still busy with several other communications officers and techs while they worked on customizing the EM pulse emitter. The Xeno titan was marching ever closer and smashing through the woods while long range mortars and rocket fire from the base's perimeter defenses were fired. Unfortunately, their efforts were causing very little damage on the giant enemy robot. As they waited on the field for the zords to arrive, Erik and Ella exchanged an awkward nod of greeting to each other before Erik reached for his comm, "Captain Sterling? Where are you, sir? The enemy is getting a little too close for comfort here."

After a short pause, the Red Ranger's voice crackled on the radio, "Hang on Rangers. My flight has just returned from our training exercise. I'm coming in from the east."

The Nova Rangers all looked up and saw a group of five Kestrel fighters approaching from the eastern skies while a group of Russian Migs began to intercept the alien fighter craft now threatening the base. With their arrival, the air battle was beginning to look a little more even now. While the Kestrel Interceptor lacked the heavier armor and firepower of the Pegasus and Firebird fighters, it made up for those shortcomings with superior speed and agility. In the hands of skilled veteran pilots, Kestrels almost always came out on top in one-on-one aerial duels.

Up above in the skies, the NATO Kestrels stayed in formation as the Italian flight leader radioed their Russian allies who were busy dogfighting the aliens, "Ursa Leader, this is Verona Leader. We made it back to help but our fuel is low."

The leader of Ursa Flight maneuvered her fighter through enemy fire and directed her team into a new aerial formation amidst the chaos, "Verona Flight, we'll hold the Strigons off while you rearm. Don't keep us waiting too long."

"Understood Ursa 1," Verona Leader replied as Martin and the rest of the NATO pilots angled in and made quick landings on the runways of the airbase. As Martin taxied his fighter over to the apron and parked, he saw ground crews rushing out with small fuel tanker trucks which pulled up alongside each Kestrel.

A radio call came in from the airbase tower, "Pilots, keep your engines running. The ground crews are going to refuel you hot to get you back into the fight. Stand by."

While the tankers and their crews frantically pumped fuel into the fighter jets, Martin sat watching the chaos on one end of the forest where the Xeno titan was laying waste to everything around it while up above, the UNAF air forces were tangling in a ferocious battle with the enemy Strigons. He radioed Erin directly from his personal channel while watching the streaks of fire from the skies getting closer, "Erin? Where are you with that ECM? We're going to need it if we plan to knock out that titan."

The Yellow Ranger answered, "We're almost done reconfiguring it Captain. The zords are on their way here but we're going to need you to buy us just a little more time to put it all together."

"Roger that Lieutenant. I'll see what I can do, but I need you to double time it!"

"Understood Martin. I won't let you down," Erin answered cutting off the radio call.

The Red Ranger looked up and saw the ground crews detach the fuel nozzle from his jet and quickly give a thumbs up signal. That was fine by him. Being parked on the airfield in the middle of a battle made him feel like a sitting duck. His flight leader led the way from the apron toward the main runway for takeoff, "Let's get the lead out people. We need to get airborne!"

Each of the Kestrels throttled up and roared down the runway while a few enemy missiles rained down and exploded around them on both sides of the strip. All the pilots of Verona Flight performed quick takeoffs and made steep vertical ascents amid the smoke and fires to rejoin the aerial battle above.

"Ursa Flight, be advised we are en route to assist," came the call from the Verona Leader, "2 and 3 stay close. 4 and 5, split out and prepare to flank."

Martin armed his own fighter's weapon systems and prepared to peel off into the melee, "Roger that Lead. Okay Verona Flight, let's rock and roll!"

* * *

As the Rangers on the ground watched the Kestrels join their Russian counterparts in battle, they were surprised as the zords finally arrived and materialized on the field one by one. The Rangers all morphed and turned to Erik who gave a nod, "All right squad, let's mount up."

The zords arrival were none too soon as the giant battle titan reached the edge of airbase and moved to wreck the runways first. Before it could attack, it was buffeted back by a hail of combined weapons fire by the three zords which rumbled on to the scene in formation. Without wasting any time, the vehicles reconfigured and fused together into the Nova Mechazord, standing tall to defend its ground.

"How are we on that jammer?" Ella called over to Erin across the radio.

"Still working on it!" the Yellow Ranger answered in frustration.

Erik growled and took the controls which moved the Mechazord forward in an aggressive attack, "We don't have time to wait anymore. We have to drive that thing back."

The two giant combatants collided amid a tangle of armored limbs and the earth shook under their feet while Ella held on and argued, "Erik! Relax! We should be playing defense here and wait for Erin."

The Blue Ranger shook his head, "No. Not here. We can't let that titan get too close and risk hurting any of the people on the base."

Jake and Bharata exchanged a tense look as they manned the weapons systems and armed the projectile launchers just in case. The Mechazord and the titan grappled and exchanged several heavy blows with each other all while missiles and gattling blasters filled the skies from the fighter plane melee above. As the Mechazord elbowed aside its foe, Erik turned to Jake, "All right Massey, now that we have some room, let's hose that thing down."

The Silver Ranger took aim and handled the zord's gattling gun turret, "Yes sir! Gattling gun armed."

He pulled the trigger and fired a withering stream of fire from the Mecahzord's gun turret but everyone stopped in surprise as the titan activated a new weapon. In a flash, a metallic tower shield projected from its forearm and deflected away all of the Mechazord's ballistic attacks. The titan rushed forward and drove its shoulder right into the Nova Mechazord with its shield raised. The sudden surprise attack caught the Rangers off guard and the Nova Mechazord was toppled to the ground amidst the titan's trampling charge.

As Erik and Ella struggled to right their downed war machine, Ella turned to the Green Ranger, "Bara! Think you can try and slow that thing down?"  
Bharata gave a thumbs up and locked on to the legs of the titan before unloading a volley of missile pods. The projectiles struck the titan and tripped it up, causing the enemy to briefly fall to its knees. Erik gripped the controls, "Let's go! Let's hit that thing again!"

Ella stopped him, "Wait Erik, let's get the ECM from Erin and draw that thing in for the kill instead. Now's our chance to disable that Xeno."

The two Rangers looked at each other for a long moment testing each other's will. As upset as they had been at each other before, this was the time to think clearly and be professional. While he was reluctant to admit it, she probably had the more sensible option to complete the mission. He finally nodded and turned the controls to steer the Mechazord back to the base, "All right then. Erin?"

"On the way sir!" she answered. She had already morphed and was pushing a large cart with some other soldiers that contained the electromagnetic jamming device. They were hurrying from their corner of the base to wheel out their weapon onto the battlefield. "If we can get that walking scrap heap in range, we can aim a focused pulse and chop it down."

Ella helped with the zord's controls and steered them toward that corner of the base, "Understood. We're luring that thing now."

The titan recovered to its feet and gave chase to the Nova Mechazord across the field. Once they got into range, the Rangers turned their zord around only to find the titan readying to fire its own projectile weapons at some of the exposed buildings of the air base. In the line of fire was Erin and her crew that had prepared the ECM weapon. Torn between protecting Erin and their titan-killing weapon vs some of the buildings on the base, Erik made his decision and steered the Mechazord to shield Erin's crew from the incoming weapons fire. A spray of rockets and blaster fire raked that corner of the base tearing the grounds up and scorching the forearm of the Mechazord protecting the Yellow Ranger's crew. With a wave, Erin gave the order and the soldiers fired the ECM device back at the titan.

The powerful focused electromagnetic pulse surged outward and slammed into the titan scrambling its circuitry and jamming its internal sensors. Just like the way that the biblical hero David felled the giant Goliath with a stone to the head, the Xeno titan staggered as its internal computers overloaded and shut down from the devastating shock to its system. It fell drunkenly to its knees and lowered its arms giving the Rangers a clean shot to finish it off. Erik gave a wave to the other two Rangers, "Fire at will! Everything you've got!"

Bharata and Jake let loose with the gattling gun and missile pods unloading all their ordnance on the Xeno titan. The vulnerable giant robot was shredded by the blistering attack and remained upright on its knees as its arms and greater portion of its torso were reduced to flaming wreckage. To the Nova Rangers' surprise, they saw a pair of missiles streak from the skies and strike the ruined titan's head, knocking it off balance and finally sending it collapsing to the ground in a thunderous crash. They looked up and saw a Kestrel fighter marked with Martin's ID beacon soar by on their visor sensors. The Kestrel rolled right and made a banking turn to fly back over the Mechazord while Martin sent a quick transmission, "And the Nova Mechazord remains the world heavyweight champion. Nice job down there team... all of you."

Erin gave a relieved wave as Martin flew by to help chase off the last of the Strigons, "Thanks for the assist Captain!"

In the Mechazord, the Rangers gave a relieved exclamation of victory before Erik and Ella stopped and looked to each other. Erik hesitated before clearing his throat, "Good work Ella... and good call on the jammer too."

The Pink Ranger nodded and put a hand on his shoulder, "I... thanks for trusting me Erik."

The Blue Ranger smiled softly and started to speak, "Ella, I'm sorry about..."

He was cut off as his eyes idly surveyed some of the blasted buildings of the airbase around them. He recognized that area. He knew where they were and his blood suddenly ran cold. Ella tilted her head, "Erik? Is everything okay?"

* * *

The Blue Ranger bolted out of his cockpit chair and abruptly rushed for the nearest escape hatch. After a frantic scramble to get out of the Mechazord and climb down from it, Erik rushed out onto the ruined grounds while several fire crews hurried to put out some fires from the smoldering buildings. Erin had spotted him and tried to stop him, "Erik? What's wrong? What are you..."

He pushed her aside in a panic and looked around the flaming remains of some of the med bays, "Ana? Ana? Where are you? Ana?"

By now, Ella had followed him out of the Mechazord and joined Erin on the ground as they tailed their distraught comrade around another corner. The two girls stopped when they saw Erik standing in front of a familiar medical bay. The building was engulfed in flames and the building looked like the ceiling had caved in. A small crowd of survivors from the building stood huddled around wearing shell shocked expressions with smoke smudges all over their faces. Erik looked like he was searching the crowd and asking questions of several of the medics there. The medics all wore forlorn looks on their faces and shook their heads. The Blue Ranger finally turned to stand in front of the flaming building. He slowly removed his Ranger helmet and continued to stare at the wreckage with a blank expression on his face. He took several heaving breaths before dropping the helmet to the ground. He fell to his knees and lowered his head to obscure his face from everyone around.

From where they watched, Ella covered her mouth and began to step forward to comfort Erik. She was stopped as Erin restrained her arm and quietly shook her head. The Yellow Ranger put and arm over her fellow female teammate and escorted her away. She decided she would radio this one in... but it would probably be best if she gave it a little bit of time first.

* * *

A golden white hue hung over the skies of the Atlantic Ocean as Erik Dobermann Jr. stood alone by one of the piers on the West End of Atlantis Base. The early morning light of the summer sun was partially obscured by cloud cover but it made the calm ocean waters glitter with a gentle ambience under a heavenly looking bank of clouds. From where the grieving Blue Ranger stood on the empty pier, that was perfectly acceptable. At that moment, he was content to be left alone with only his thoughts and the soothing sounds of the ocean waters around him. He continued to stare blankly out across the ocean in a sort of catatonic trance before he felt a hand on his shoulder.

Erik turned slowly to see Martin walk up beside him and join him at the pier. The Red Ranger wore a quiet expression that was somewhere between a weak smile and a look of pity. The two men stood looking out over the waters in companionable silence for a time until Martin finally spoke, "So... how did things go back in Germany?"

"Oh, you know... it was horrible," Erik mumbled quietly, "The funeral services were beautiful... but Ana's family? What are you supposed to say to them? What can you say to them when they're asking you questions about who you are and why this all happened?"

Martin remained quiet and nodded in silence before speaking again, "How is Sarah handling everything?"

Erik snorted gently, "Honestly? She doesn't know what to think or how to feel. She never knew her mother, much less met her. You can't miss what you never knew you had in the first place. Right? In a way, I'm actually kinda envious of Sarah right now."

"Erik..."

"Every time I look at that child, I'm going to see Ana... a piece of her. I never thought much about it before, but now? Well... things are different."

The Red Ranger took a breath as the sounds of the waves lapped the pier quietly, "I think you're looking at things the wrong way Erik. A piece of Ana is still alive. She's still there in Sarah and she'll keep living on as long as you keep fighting and protecting your daughter. You love your little girl, don't you?"

"More than life itself," Erik answered firmly. He paused and let another silence pass between them.

After a minute, the Blue Ranger sighed, "I've seen death before Martin. I've seen it on the battlefield and sometimes even among innocents caught up in the struggle. It's my job to accept that and to not let it bother me. I have to try and do whatever I can to protect life and preserve it in the midst of senseless chaos and violence... but this one time? I can't for the life of me understand why I couldn't do anything to stop this from happening to someone I loved. I keep thinking to myself, am I responsible for Ana's death? What if I had stayed behind to be with her? What if I chose to use the Mechazord to shield the base instead? Maybe if I..."

"Hey," Martin interrupted while giving a gentle look to his comrade, "This isn't your fault Erik. It's not going to do any good beating yourself up with that line of thinking."

"And how do you know?" Erik snorted quickly without thinking.

"Because I had done the same thing before... for far too long," Martin answered, "Trust me Erik. This was not your fault."

Erik paused and looked to Martin wearing a forlorn expression, "You're just telling me what I want to hear right now, aren't you?"

Martin shook his head slowly and echoed some of Erik's words in one of their prior talks, "Well, that's just what best friends do sometimes... and right now, it also happens to be true."

Erik looked away slowly and took it all in before giving a nod and looking back out over the ocean waters. Martin placed a comforting hand on his friend's shoulder, "If you need anything... time..."

Erik nodded quietly and glanced over with a weak but grateful smile, "Thank you Captain."

Martin nodded and gestured away from the piers, "I'll give you some privacy. I think there's someone else who wants to talk to you right now."

Erik looked over in surprise to see Ella waiting nearby. She stood quietly wearing a quiet apologetic expression and approached when Martin beckoned her forward. As the Red Ranger began to depart the pier, he saw Ella walk over and give Erik a comforting hug. They held each other for a long moment before Erik let her go and turned away slightly, "It turns out you were right Ella..."

"About what?"

"About Ana... she broke my heart again," Erik winced while looking out to the waters, "I can understand if you're still mad at me. You told me not to come crawling back looking for any sympathy from you... right?"

She shook her head sadly and silenced him, "No. I'm not mad at you anymore. I... just don't say anything right now Erik. There's nothing left that has to be said."

The Blue Ranger turned back to the waters while Ella leaned the side of her head against his shoulder in a friendly comforting gesture. From a distance, Martin gave a small quiet smile and nodded before heading back toward the Command Tower. Losing loved ones and seeing innocents suffer had always been a part of war. It was the burden that all soldiers carried, but being surrounded by others who cared and understood those things... well, it always made those times a little more bearable. That's who the Rangers were after all... friends, teammates, family.

It was certain that there were many more battles left to be fought, obstacles to overcome, and perhaps even tragedies to weather. As long as the Rangers of Nova Squadron continued doing it together, then there was no doubt that regardless of whatever happened... things would be okay.

* * *

 **A/N:**  
 **Sorry for the downer ending there everyone. Can't have a true war drama without a few incidents like this coming up, right? I promise the next plotline won't be so sad though. Coming up in the next arc, the squad gets sent to London England and becomes embroiled in political intrigue and conspiracy. With resident Englishman Jake Massey taking center stage, how bad could things possibly get, right?**


	21. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

**Mission 24: Part 1  
**

It had been a hot summer day at Atlantis Base and Sergeant Jake Massey was looking forward to enjoying a quiet Friday evening and a lazy rest of the weekend. After a five mile run followed by combat maneuver training in the scorching sun, Jake wallowed in the cool air conditioning of one of the base's lounges. It felt good to have showered up and eaten dinner leaving him some free time for his newest hobby: trying to crack the mysterious code on the locked datapad his father had given him. He sat idly in his chair and typed in several possible codes but to no avail. Nearby, a television set was playing the end credits to the James Bond movie that had just finished.

"Jake, are you really sure this is going to help you figure out the code to that datapad?" Ella asked as she nibbled on some popcorn from a nearby couch. She sat with Bharata who had also come by to catch a movie and keep them company for the evening.

"I'm out of other ideas," Jake sighed, "I figure if I'm going to crack this code, I'm going to have to start thinking like a super-spy. These movies might help me get into the right mindset, right?"

His two friends exchanged a shrug before the door opened and a young German woman entered. Staff Sergeant Braun gave Bharata and Ella a salute before handing an envelope to Jake. "Hey Massey, the enlisted mail call came late and got all screwed up today. I was on my way to make deliveries so I figured I'd stop in and give you a letter."

"Thanks," Jake replied as he took the mail and waited for her to leave the room. The Silver Ranger opened the envelope and found a small slip of paper. He gave a puzzled look and read the one word that was on it.

"Everything okay Jake? Who's the mail from?" Bharata asked.

Jake turned the paper around to show his friends, "The return address is from my mother. As for this letter... all it says is one word. Quicksilver."

The Green and Pink Rangers exchanged another puzzled look, "What is that all about? Does that mean anything to you?"

Jake shook his head and stared at the note. While he did, he glanced to the datapad laying beside him in the lounge chair. He picked it up and eyed his friends slowly, "Wait a second... you don't think..."

The Rangers had known that Jake's parents had both been involved in some sort of high level government politics and that they likely had pulled a power play to help General Caldwell once before. It wasn't a major stretch to think that they were involved in something again and maybe involving their son. Then again, they were often too busy for him and it was odd to think he might suddenly have some importance to their schemes. Jake entered the word Quicksilver into the datapad and laughed in joy as the password screen unlocked and gave him access to the contents. "Bloody hell, I can't believe it! That actually worked! We're in!"

As he pulled up the only file on the pad, he saw that it was a word document. The title read "God save the wise King James" followed by a long series of numbers broken up by "lines" and "pages."

Jake groaned, "Look at this! Another puzzle? What is all this rubbish supposed to mean?"

He handed the datapad to Bharata and the Green Ranger studied it for a while. After scrutinizing it quietly, Ella poked him in the side, "Hey Bara... you've been kinda quiet there. Have you figured something out?"

Bharata pensively chewed his lip, "Well I can't be completely certain, but I might have a hunch what all this might mean."

"You do? What?" Jake asked excitedly.

Bharata handed the pad back to him, "Those of us with some training in Military Intelligence are used to looking at encoded data picked up from enemies. Based on clues with the lines and pages, I'd guess this might be a type of code that's commonly used. It's called a book cipher. Instead of having a personal codebook with you, you take a popular and unassuming book that anyone could get and then you use that as your source. The code might specify particular pages, lines, or words that you draw from the book to get the final coded message."

"Oh wow... now that sounds like spy work to me," Ella grinned excitedly, "The question is... if it is a book cipher, what book do we use?"

Jake reread the document, "God save the wise King James... God. King James. Maybe it's referring to the Bible? The King James version? That's a pretty common book that you can find anywhere!"

Bharata shrugged, "Sure. It's worth a shot."

"Brilliant!" Jake cried as he leapt to his feet and pulled Ella up with him, "What do you say we all take this to the lab and ask for some help from Julian and Dr. Beckett, yeah?

* * *

Late that night, Jake, Bharata, and Ella sat in the briefing room of the Command Tower with General Caldwell and Dr. Lucy Beckett waiting for the others to arrive. A short while later, Martin entered with Erik and Erin. All three Rangers were dressed down to their civilian clothes and looked like they had been out for a night on the town in the West End. All three looked a little tired and flushed, likely from having been out drinking and dancing. Martin gave a salute to Caldwell and took his seat while Erik sat beside him and looked to the younger Rangers, "You guys do know that it's one in the morning, right?"

"Not to mention a Friday night" Erin chimed in with a mild frown, "We're supposed to be having free rec time right now. Not working."

Martin rubbed his eyes tiredly wishing he had some coffee to counteract the beer he had been drinking with Erik and Erin, "I'm not too thrilled about being dragged in at this hour either Erin, but our job is 24/7."

Caldwell rose from his chair and nodded, "Captain. Everyone. I apologize for the early morning conference, but I felt this was too important to wait. Earlier this evening, Sergeant Massey came across some intel that has some troubling implications. Jake?"

Jake nodded and rose to address the room, "Everyone, I think you know already that my parents have some high level connections in the world council and the UNAF. They've helped us before and I have a feeling that they're asking for our assistance now. Please, I'm asking for you guys to help me so that I can do the same for them in return."

Erik blinked in confusion, "Of course we will Jake, but what is this all about?"

The Silver Ranger held up his encrypted datapad, "When General Caldwell returned to command here after that failed political coup, my father gave me this datapad to keep safe. Tonight, my mother sent me the password and with Bara's help, we figured out there was a book cipher within it."

Erin sat up in her seat and perked her ears up, "Intriguing. What was the message?"

Jake glanced over and gave a nod to Lucy, "Dr. Beckett helped us decode the message tonight and it talks about a possible conspiracy within the UN Council and the UNAF as well. They didn't trust the others in their circles and decided to leave their findings with me for safekeeping. They figured an enlisted grunt like me would be the last person to get involved in this so no one would suspect me. That, and I think they're putting their trust in General Caldwell."

The table went quiet before Caldwell grimaced, "I'm normally very skeptical of conspiracy theories myself, but the fact that they're coming from both of Jake's parent's worries me. I trust them and think of them as fairly credible sources."

The other Rangers fell silent again for a moment before Martin narrowed his eyes, "All right, let's work under the assumption that all the intel is legitimate. What is this conspiracy?"

Before Caldwell could speak, Jake spoke up, "My parents believe that there are several high ranking politicians and senior officers of the UNAF who are conspiring against the current UN Council. They can't be certain if it's some kind of power play, or if maybe people have been compromised by outside entities."

"Wait, what? Outside entities? Like what?" Erik asked incredulously.

Lucy adjusted her glasses and folded her arms quietly, "As in Xenos Captain Dobermann. Based on their cloning technology and cosmetic cyborgs, it's quite possible they may have tried infiltrating our institutions or set up sleeper cells."

Caldwell frowned to himself before speaking again, "Regardless, the Masseys suspect that a prominent politician in the UN Council is at the heart of this conspiracy. His name is Maximilian Kluviert, a wealthy Dutch industrialist turned politician. Since he's taken office he's become popular in several circles. He's been a very vocal supporter for the formal unification of the world's governments and the centralization of their militaries."

Ella scratched her chin, "Well, that doesn't sound so evil or malicious."

"Maybe not on its face, but that line of thinking can get very dangerous very quickly," Martin frowned, "What you're asking is for countries to willingly give up their own sovereignty and ability to take care of their own people first. Hell, if you give away your own military, there's no telling if a true global government could turn around and use it against you if you step out of line."

"Ah yes. Small government and personal freedom above all else," Erin teased gently, "Spoken like a true American."

"You're damn right," the Red Ranger replied firmly, "You guys remember when the European Union tried pulling that idiotic stunt a century ago, right?"

Jake sniggered, "Yeah, we Brits told them all to bugger off. Damn near ruined them too."

Erik simply sighed and opted for self deprecating humor instead, "Oh well... maybe one day Germany will finally succeed in conquering Europe."

Caldwell cleared his throat and waved it all off, "Individual politics aside, the Masseys came upon some questionable things when they were digging for blackmail material on the politicians that tried to sack me. All of them had political and business ties to Kluviert."

Bharata drummed his fingers on the table, "So the guy has his fingers in a lot of pies. That doesn't necessarily mean anything."

Caldwell nodded, "True, but the Masseys question his motives. Kluviert's business has expressed an unusually great interest in acquiring safe Xeno-tech recovered from our war in hopes that it can be used to develop beneficial technology. They have been very aggressive about it and have put pressure on the military to not hoard everything we recover from the battlefields."

"Can't they realize it's for their own protection?" Lucy interjected with an unusual hint of indignance, "We're the ones directly dealing with those aliens and they're probably more interested in profit margins. If I'm struggling to figure out how to deal with new Xeno tech half the time, what makes them think they'd know any better?"

The general raised his hand to settle everyone down, "There have been some other unusual reports about Kluviert and his fascination with the Xenos and I won't get into them here. The important thing is that the Masseys want us to dig deeper into this and make sure there's no alien influence."

Erin shifted restlessly in her seat, "So how do we go about doing that General? We're not exactly trained in all that cloak and dagger espionage stuff."

"No, but I have contacts with people who do," Caldwell smiled. "I made a call to an old friend of mine in London. He works for British Intelligence at MI6. He's going to help us look into things quietly and provide an agent to assist you in the field."

"Are you serious? We're going to London and getting to act like secret agents?" Jake smiled.

"Unofficial secret agents," Caldwell corrected him, "A mission plan is being drawn up right now and we'll have another briefing tomorrow morning. You're going to start by gathering intel on Kluviert who's scheduled some business meetings with one of his friends... an arms manufacturer known as the Corporate King."

"This sounds better and better," Jake said rubbing his hands together, "With your permission General, I'd like to take point in this operation. I know London fairly well and think my recon training might be helpful too."

Caldwell glanced to Martin and the Red Ranger shrugged, "A good leader knows when he needs to defer to his men sometimes. Sure."

"Very well. I'll see you all at ten hundred hours then," Caldwell said dismissing the Rangers.

As the team walked out the door, Jake turned to his friends and asked, "I don't suppose any of you guys would be willing to refer to me as 006 during this op... would you?"

* * *

The next morning, the squad beamed into London and found themselves in a large public park with green trees and burbling water fountains. Jake immediately recognized the place, "This is Hyde Park everyone."

"That's right Sergeant," Caldwell said over their comm beads, "If you head toward Buckingham Palace nearby, you should meet your contact at the foot of the Victoria Memorial. I'll leave the rest to you from there. Caldwell out."

Jake led the way and the Rangers followed behind admiring the pristine park and the flowery walking paths. The Silver Ranger muttered, "It's not Bristol, but it's good to be back on home ground. The place looks a lot nicer than I remember it during the Xeno attack five years ago."

Ella looked around at some of the old palatial buildings on the path, "Caldwell said Buckingham Palace is nearby, do you think the Queen is in today? How exciting would that be if we see her?"

Erin snorted with mild displeasure, "Count me out. As far as I'm concerned, the British royalty can all sod off."

Jake gave her a mild frown and continued on just chalking it up to the Irish being their stubborn rebellious selves. Martin chuckled toward Jake and put a friendly arm around the Yellow Ranger while they walked, "Don't worry Erin. Those of us across the pond aren't too fond of monarchies either."

As the other Rangers shared a small laugh at that, they came to a large ornate monument made of marble. On the pylon were sculptures topped by an angelic statue in gilt bronze. Jake gestured like a tour guide, "Okay everyone, here we are. The Victoria Memorial and Buckingham is just up the path. I guess we wait here, right?"

"I doubt you're going to have to wait long," a voice answered as a female approached from behind.

She was a very attractive young woman who was about the same age as most of the Rangers, mid to late twenties. Her features were dark and exotic and if the Rangers had to guess, she was likely of Indian descent. She wore dark dressy business clothes that still complimented her figure and she moved with a calm easy grace. She extended a polite hand and gave a small but inscrutable smile, "Excuse me, but if I'm not mistaken, you six are the Nova Rangers, aren't you?"

Jake took her hand and decided to turn on the British charm by adopting a suave yet amused air, "You've got sharp eyes luv... and very beautiful ones too. Have you been checking me out just now?"

"Actually I have," the British Indian woman smiled back, "And I'm very interested in talking to you right now."

Jake smirked, "Ah, well... if you'd like, maybe we can do so over a cup of tea sometime? I'm actually here on business right now with my friends and we're supposed to meet with someone."

"Oh? Wow! Sounds very important," the woman said with a in impressed look, "It wouldn't happen to be with an MI6 agent would it?"

Jake blanched and suddenly lost his suave air, "Wait... how did you..."

In the background, Martin quietly face-palmed while the well-dressed woman extended her hand out again wearing a sly smile, "Let's try this again, shall we? Agent Priya Anwar, British Intelligence. Nice to make your acquaintance Sgt. Jacob Massey."

"Smooth move 006," Erik teased his younger friend while the others made their introductions.

Once they were acquainted, Priya pulled the Rangers aside to a quieter area of the plaza near a bubbling fountain, "I understand I was tasked with helping you do some surveillance work? Something with a high military security clearance?"

Jake nodded and started to refer back to their briefing with Caldwell that morning, "We're hoping it turns out to be nothing but we're going to need to spy on two people. Maximilian Kluviert and Reginald King."

Priya's eyes widened a moment, "The Globalist politician and The Corporate King?"

Jake nodded, "Both of them should be meeting later today at the Langham Hotel for a business talk. We need to find out what they're up to."

Priya frowned, "What interest does the military have in that?"

"I'm afraid that part is classified Miss Anwar. You're just going to have to trust us on this one," Martin answered with a quiet level voice.

Priya wrinkled her features and looked at Jake before turning back to Martin, "Normally I'd be very suspicious of something like this. My boss trusts yours and I have serious doubts that if Power Rangers are involved, they're not going to be on the side of anything unsavory."

She nodded her head, "All right. I'll help you infiltrate that business conference. We're not going to have a lot of time to prepare so let's hurry. Come with me."

* * *

Meanwhile on the dark side of the moon, Taldyr made his way to the command deck of the grounded Xeno mothership where Warmaster Hellspont stood before a viewscreen. On the other end of the transmission, a reptilian looking Xeno with bio mechanical upgrades and feminine features spoke to him. She had the horned features and rotating eye sockets of a chameleon and she flicked her long iron tongue, Everything is going according to plan Warmaster. It's taken close to a year, but your contingency plan is ready and all the pieces are almost in place."

Hellspont nodded and gave a pleased smile, "Excellent Trioceras. Remember to keep a close watch on your ward. To think, he really believes we will actually help him achieve his naive utopian vision. The fool will hand the entire world to us on a silver platter."

"I'll make sure the proper arrangements will be made," the chameleon Xeno Trioceras nodded, "Once the opposition has been dealt with, we'll be able to conquer Earth in a bloodless coup."

"See to it," Hellspont replied, "Keep your head down and your eyes open for trouble."

"Always," the cyborg lizard woman replied while beginning to holographically alter her appearance. Before she took on her human disguise again, the signal ended and Hellspont turned to the clone trooper who waited patiently at the door.

"Taldyr, I'm glad you're here. I need you to begin preparations for a major assault in the future."

The clone kept his composure and tilted his head curiously, "You're going to be sending another Omega Trooper?"

The Warmaster shook his head and folded his hands behind his back. He turned and looked out the viewport toward the dark starry skies above the lunar landscape, "No. For what I have in mind, we're going to muster as many clone soldiers as we possibly can."

* * *

 **A/N:**  
 **Sorry for the lack of battles and Ranger action everyone. We're going to try something a little different with more intrigue. Just be patient with this plot. If I'm drawing on James Bond and Mission Impossible tropes here, you can bet I'll still include the car chases and explosions later on.**


	22. Enemy Within, Enemy Without

**Mission 24: Part 2  
**

Later that day, the Nova Rangers arrived at the ritzy Langham Hotel which was located nearby the district of Soho. The place was already bustling with crowds of summer tourists, shoppers, and other locals looking for some entertainment in the area. The heavy foot traffic worked in favor of the Rangers and their new ally from MI6 as they prepared their raid. Unlike the normal battlefield raids they were used to, this time they were trading their rifles and flak vests in favor of subtle recording devices and cameras. In order to blend in with the crowds, the seven changed out of their duty uniforms in favor of new disguises.

In the palatial lobby of the hotel, Jake Massey stood by some oil paintings and ornate vases with tastefully arranged flowers. The place exuded a very posh look with a polished art deco style to its interior design. As he stood waiting, he dusted some lint off the gray polo shirt and khaki pants that he was wearing before picking up a prop suitcase beside him. Ella waited with him, dressed down to a pink floral summer dress while holding his arm and standing close as if giving the impression that they were some kind of couple.

As they stopped to admire an expensive looking chandelier in one of the side rooms, a well dressed male bellhop approached with a polite smile, "Good afternoon. Are you finding everything all right? Can I help you with your bag?"

"Everything is just fine," Jake smiled politely while putting on his best American accent. He pulled a smartphone from his pocket, "My new wife and I are just waiting for a text from the cab driver. We're going to be doing some sightseeing while on our honeymoon."

"Oh? Congratulations," the bellhop smiled, "I don't suppose you'd need any recommendations of some of the local attractions, do you?"

Jake maintained a friendly air despite his growing annoyance with the nosy bellhop. "Quite all right sir. I think we'll manage just fine thanks."

Ella took her phone and pretended to see a text message before pulling Jake away, "Darling, I think that's the driver now. Come on."

As they walked away from the hotel attendant and went into another room, Jake nodded to Ella in approval for the distraction. He reverted back to his English accent and spoke into his private comm bead with the rest of the team. "Captain Sterling? Any sign of our people yet?"

At the other end of the hotel, Martin sat in a lounge chair wearing a dark suit and posing as a businessman. He kept a cup of tea beside him and idly pretended to read a newspaper while keeping a lookout for the people in question. He raised the newspaper and spoke quietly into his collar, "Stay put Jake. It shouldn't be long now. Erik? Bara? Are you guys in position?"

Meanwhile, the Blue and Green Rangers had donned he disguises of maintenance staff and snuck their way in through the back doors of the hotel. As they walked down the service hallways, they made their way down into the basement of the building where the power grid and security systems were located. Erik kept watch while Bharata stealthily picked the lock of the room and began to use his own Intelligence training to tamper with the systems. "Everything is good on our end sir. We're standing by for orders."

Martin radioed Erin, "Lt. Reilly? What's your status?"

In one of the hotel's private dining rooms, Erin quickly placed listening bugs in secret nooks and corners of the place while testing the signal on a small handheld device. She glanced back toward the doorway while Agent Priya Anwar was busy keeping the hotel manager occupied. The Yellow Ranger hissed back quietly, "The bugs are almost in place Captain. Miss Anwar and I posed as building inspectors and I think the hotel manager bought it. We'll be headed back soon."

Martin nodded and ended the call before looking up and catching sight of their targets. Mr. Kluviert was a handsome well coifed man with patrician features and gray streaks in his hair. He looked to be tall and older middle aged. Both Mr. Kluviert and Mr. King approached each other from across the lobby and exchanged a cordial handshake. At Kluviert's side was a relatively young Asian woman in a white pantsuit carrying documents. Most likely she was his secretary or personal assistant. As they passed by and headed for their reserved dining room, Martin hid behind his newspaper and spoke quietly into his comm, "All right Rangers, it's showtime. You know what to do."

At the other end of the hotel, Jake and Ella took action and quickly headed toward the elevators. While they did, Erik and Bharata disabled the power to all the security cameras on the floor where Kluviert had booked a room. Now that they were in the clear, Jake and Ella took the elevator up several floors and made their way down the hallways to Kluviert's room. Much to the Ranger's delight, MI6 had been able to provide an exact room number and a special keycard which would get them into the place. When they reached the hotel room, Jake swiped the card and opened the door in relief. The two friends entered the large elegant room before Jake put a "Do not Disturb" tab on the door and locked it. He glanced to Ella with a playful wink, "Alone at last darling."

The Pink Ranger rolled her eyes and gave him a light punch in the arm before doing a search of the room, "Come on Jake, be a darling and help me look now. Kluviert must have some kind of laptop or briefcase around here."

The two didn't need to spend long searching before they found a laptop computer. Ella booted it up and quickly hacked in while Jake kept watch. The Pink Ranger reached in her purse and pulled a small thumbdrive with special military grade features to access Kluviert's personal files and download copies of them. Jake drummed his fingers impatiently and watched before Ella shut down the laptop and gave a thumbs up. "Got it. Let's get out of here."

As they exited, they were stopped by the same bellhop who had been pestering Jake downstairs. He was porting some luggage for another hotel guest whose room was directly across the hall. Both Ranger's felt their blood run cold when they saw the new male guest. The man looked very similar to the clone soldier Taldyr except his head was completely shaved. He wore a dark suit and looked to be part of some security detail. The clone security guard remained silent and scrutinized the Rangers while the bellhop called out to Jake and Ella, "Sir? Miss? Is everything okay? I thought you two were catching your ride downstairs."

Ella did her best to put on a charming smile and nodded her head, "Oh yes. I was just running back to get my purse. I forgot it earlier. Silly me."

The two turned and made a quick retreat down the hall while Jake radioed Martin quietly, "We've got the files Captain, but I think we've also got some trouble."

* * *

Meanwhile, Erin and Priya finished their work in the dining room and began to disengage when Mr. Kluviert and Mr. King arrived. Priya tapped her datapad officiously and shook hands with the hotel manager, "Well, that should be it. My associate here as done her inspection and everything looks to be in order. We'll be in contact."

Mr. Kluviert stopped and waited as the hotel manager stopped and turned in surprise, "Oh! Mr. Kluviert! Mr. King! What a surprise. You're here already. I'm so sorry about all this. Your dining room should be ready in just a few minutes."

"Is there a problem here?" Kluviert asked calmly.

"Not at all," Priya replied with a polite smile, "I'm afraid I should be apologizing for the inconvenience. We're with the Safety Inspector's Office and were doing surprise audits. I'm glad to say this place passed with flying colors."

Kluviert's aide scrutinized Priya with suspicion before turning her eyes on Erin. The Asian woman held her silent questioning gaze just long enough to make the Yellow Ranger start to feel uncomfortable. Erin remained silent and tried to keep a low profile while Priya took a moment to maintain the charade and disengage from the businessmen. As the two women walked away down the hall, Erin turned to Priya, "Is everything okay? You think they bought it?"

The MI6 agent gave a quick sidelong wink, "Not to worry girl. I'm a professional. Now, best tell your Captain we're on our way to the rendezvous point."

While the girls had their back turned, Kluviert's aide watched them go. She turned to her boss and he caught the preoccupied look in her eyes, "Midori? Is something wrong?"

Midori handed her file folder to Kluviert and gave a calm shake of the head, "Your documents sir. If you'll excuse me for just a few minutes, I have a personal phone call to make."

* * *

Several blocks away from the Langham Hotel, Martin waited while sitting on an empty bench in the small Cavendish Square Gardens. He shifted about restlessly and quickly rose to his feet when he saw Erik and Bharata arrive next. Instead of salutes, the two gave quick nods while Erik spoke, "Sir, we made it."

"Good work you two. What about the others?"

Bharata took a quick look around, "They should be coming soon. Is everything okay?"

The Red Ranger grimaced, "I'm not so sure. Jake and Ella might have seen a clone trooper and Erin says Kluviert's assistant was giving them funny looks at the hotel. Hopefully we can all meet here soon. If worst comes to worst, we'll go the US Embassy a few blocks west of here."

Meanwhile, Erin and Priya left the Langham Hotel and made their way toward Cavendish Square Gardens nearby. As they crossed the street and began heading southwest, they were stopped on the street by a few men in dark suits. They had the appearance of security guards and to Erin's horror, she recognized the faces of the men as that of the clone trooper Taldyr. Were these Eidolon soldiers out of uniform?

The first security guard barred their path with a stony look, "Excuse me ladies, but I'm going to have to ask the both of you to come with us."

Priya put on a fake smile and raised her hands, "Gentlemen, there must be some misunderstanding here. I don't know what you're..."

"Miss, don't say anything else. Just come with us," the first clone insisted with a more threatening tone.

Priya looked to Erin and the Yellow Ranger nodded, "Run."

Both women spit up and ran in opposite directions to confuse the clones. As Erin took off running down the block with a few clones in pursuit, she reached for her morpher to radio her team, "Guys? We've got trouble!"

Not far behind, Jake and Ella left the hotel and froze when they spotted Erin and Priya across the street running for their lives.

Jake clenched his fist and turned to his teammate, "Ella, go find Martin and make sure that data gets back to base."

"What? What about you? Where are you going?" she asked in surprise.

The Silver Ranger didn't wait and took off down the street where Priya had been running, "I'm going to save a damsel in distress!"

* * *

Further down the road, Priya Anwar slid around a few parked cars and wove her way through the crowds trying to make her escape. The agent ducked into a few alleys and caught her breath. Priya reached into her suit jacket and pulled a small concealed pistol. She did a quick scan of her surroundings and looked for any signs of her pursuers. Moments later, her eyes caught movement from above. On the second floor overhang of a building, she saw a clear rippling form crawling along the side of the building to get closer to her. She had never seen such a strange sight. It looked like some sort of alien camouflage technology which rendered the attacker nearly invisible.

It crawled with lizard like movements and dove from the building to land almost on top of Priya. The agent rolled aside and saw the camouflage cloak drop revealing a chameleon-like Xeno with vaguely female features. The mechanically augmented alien gave a threatening hiss and rotated her eye before lashing her long tail in a sweeping motion. Priya leapt backwards and got clear of the tail with had large spikes built into the end of it. The tail whip smashed the wall of a nearby shop taking chunks out of the bricks while frightened people on the streets turned and fled in panic from the sight of the alien.

Priya blinked in shock and fearfully leveled her pistol to retaliate but the chameleon Triocera opened her mouth a flicked out a long telescoping tongue made of steel and swatted the gun away. The sudden force of the attack knocked Priya over just as some of the clone security guards caught up and surrounded her.

Triocera retracted her tongue and ambled forward wearing a malicious smile, "I don't know who you are or what organization you work for, but I will not let you interfere in the Warmaster's plans my dear."

Before the Xeno could get any closer, she was blasted back by a plasma bolt and gave a furious screech. The other clone guards turned to the direction of the blaster shot and looked up in surprise as an unmorphed Jake came charging through holding his Fusion Striker in rifle mode. He bowled a few clones over with a shoulder tackle and tumbled clear to Priya's side. He held out his hand and quickly helped her to her feet with wink. "Mind if I cut in?"

Priya looked at him in surprise before giving a small smile of gratitude, "Don't tell me you're jealous. That chameleon isn't a friend of yours, is she?"

Jake morphed and went directly into his Supernova mode. "If you're asking about my type luv, I draw the line at scales."

The now recovered Triocera gave another shriek and waved her tail threateningly as the Silver Ranger fired his jetpack and made a leaping attack toward her. While the Silver Ranger locked into battle with the chameleon Xeno, Priya took on the three clone guards who were still standing. Despite their size advantage, the graceful limber MI6 agent moved evasively through their punches and counterattacked with vicious strikes at their pressure points. In a flash, she swiftly disabled all three of them with crippling blows to their knees and their necks.

Meanwhile, Jake dodged Triocera's spiked tail whips and tumbled clear before firing a volley of blaster shots at her. The Xeno leapt away and latched to the wall of a nearby building flicking her iron tongue out at him too. Jake went airborne several feet and surprised the Xeno by raining down a few more shots on her which blew her off the building. "Nice move lizard face, but I've got a few surprise moves too."

The wounded Trioceras growled and went into her invisible cloaking mode as Jake dove down and converted his weapon into a blade to strike a physical blow. As Jake swept by, he halted in surprise as his Fusion Striker pierced empty concrete. As the Xeno slipped away in retreat, Jake regained his footing and powered down. He took a moment to survey the empty battlefield and scowled in mild irritation that the alien had slipped away. Whatever it had done, it seemed to have a similar cloaking ability to the feature Bara had on his morpher.

He turned to see his ally Priya standing by and watching over the bodies of the three unconscious clones. She tried to give a slightly encouraging nod, "Good show Sergeant. You drove that monster off."

"I would be happier if I was able to destroy that thing," he replied sourly, "But it's better than nothing."

"Well, it's not a complete scrub," Priya said while Jake handed her fallen pistol back to her, "You still have these three blokes to bring in for questioning... and you have my thanks for saving me."

The two stood close from the exchange and held each other's eye contact before their moment was broken by the arrival of the other Rangers.

"What the hell happened here?" Bharata asked in shock as he looked around the streets and buildings around them, "This block looks like a warzone."

"It kinda was Bara," Jake replied while turning to Martin, "Captain, we were just attacked by a Xeno field commander. She had some kind of chameleon shape-shifting powers going on but she got away. Sir, something very wrong is going on here and I think we should take that data back to Atlantis Base."

Martin nodded slowly and clapped Jake on the shoulder, "Agreed. Well done Sergeant. When we get back to base, Ella I want you to start going over everything on that thumbdrive with Lucy and Julian. Bara and Erin, you two will interrogate these clones. The rest of us are going to get to work doing damage control here and planning our next course of action."

* * *

That evening, Jake Massey sat alone in the corner booth of a pub in Westminster. It had been a long day. He was tired and needed to do something to unwind. Between the intel gathering stunt they pulled earlier along with fighting off a Xeno and dealing with local authorities, Jake hadn't had much time to enjoy being back home in England. After a dinner of fish and chips, he thought it would be best to just have some quiet time with a beer and a smoke. After taking another sip of his beer, he pulled out a cigarette from his pocket and fumbled for his lighter when he heard a familiar click and saw the light of another lighter being held out by somebody.

"Can I help you with that Sergeant?" Priya said sitting down across from him. She slid in quietly like a cat and retracted her lighter after he lit his cigarette.

"Thanks... and you can forget the rank here. Just call me Jake," he said taking a slow drag, "If that's okay with you."

"Only if you call me Priya," she said as she sat back and studied him, "You're not with your team?"

The Silver Ranger shook his head, "Nah, not tonight. I just thought I'd enjoy being home in the UK for a little bit."

"I thought maybe you were a little unhappy about that alien getting away so you came here."

Jake took another idle puff, "Tell me Priya... why are you here tonight?"

She paused as a bartender gave her a cocktail she ordered. She stirred the drink a minute and fixed Jake with an enigmatic look, "I came out of curiosity."

"You're curious about me?" Jake blinked in momentary surprise, "I mean... about what exactly?"

Priya sipped from her glass primly and brushed some of her long dark hair aside, "You can cut the 007 act Jake. Trust me, you're not fooling anybody."

The Silver Ranger deflated a little and sighed before blowing some smoke, "Did you just come to mess with me or something?"

Priya shook her head, "No, I was being honest when I said i was genuinely curious about you. Based on the intel I was given about you by my boss, I was wondering about your deal with your parents."

"You've been doing homework on me? And on my team?"

She sighed patiently, "Intelligence agent here... remember? Your father is a Colonel in the British Army and your mother has high level contacts in the UN embassies. And you..."

"You want to know why a guy from such a well connected patrician family is a grunt soldier in the UNAF?" Jake snorted.

"Well... the thought did cross my mind," Priya said, "At the very least, I thought you might be some sort of officer."

Jake shook his head and took a drag of his smoke, "No. I'm not going to get any special help or privileges to get me there. If I rise to the officer ranks, I'm going to do it the right way."

"I don't understand."

The Silver Ranger chewed his lip, "You might think that because of my family's situation, I could be living on easy street. I didn't see my parents much and I still don't see them often because they're too busy with their jobs. I can't blame them because they were never bad to me... but they weren't very involved or attentive either. Maybe they wouldn't care much if I did live the easy life or get some cushy job somewhere else. The thing is, I do care and I want to earn my position through struggle."

"And you think that maybe if you do, then perhaps you'd truly get their attention?" Priya asked curiously.

Jake remained silent for a time and grimaced, "I don't know. Don't get me wrong, I love my parents. They're not bad people either. They're just uninvolved."

"Not like your Ranger team," Priya observed, "You guys all seem pretty close."

Jake smiled, "We are. I guess in a strange way they've become like a surrogate family. But part of my attitude still remains true with them. I'm the last person to join the squad and there are times I feel like I still need to prove myself to the team... to prove my worth."

"That's why you've been trying so hard to act so cool on this op, hasn't it?" she asked with a hint of an amused smile.

"I don't suppose it's been working out as well as I had hoped," he said sheepishly.

"You shouldn't be so hard on yourself Jake," Priya smiled gently while fixing her dark eyes on his, "I think there's a lot more positives to you than you're giving yourself credit for."

The Silver Ranger paused and looked back at her for a long moment before his Nova Morpher went off. It was General Caldwell. "Sergeant Massey are you there?"

"I'm here sir," he replied with a hint of reluctance in his voice.

"I'm going to need you to return to Atlantis Base. Martin and Erik are already on their way home. It seems the others made some progress in the investigation."

Jake nodded before ending the transmission, "Understood General. I'll be returning shortly."

Jake put out his cigarette and threw back the rest of his drink before standing up from the booth. He threw down some money on the table before giving Priya an apologetic look, "Sorry. Duty calls. There's a couple extra quid here to cover the server's tip."

"You don't have to cover the tab," she replied trying to push the money back toward him.

"Sure I do," the Silver Ranger replied with a modest smile as he headed out the door of the pub, "That means when I come back for our second date, you can buy the next round."

Priya blinked in surprise and watched him depart before shaking her head with a small laugh. Seeing as how this investigation was far from over, she wondered if he'd actually take her up on that debt.


	23. Dangerous Liaisons

**Mission 24: Part 3  
**

Late that evening, Jake returned to Atlantis Base and sat down in the conference room of the Command Tower as all the Nova Rangers assembled. As always, General Caldwell chaired the meeting at the head of the room while Lucy and Julian sat at the other end of the table alongside the rest of the team.

"Good to see everyone," Caldwell smiled as he activated the holographic projector displays on the table, "Despite the run in with the Xenos, you all did excellent work on your investigation. Not only did it turn up some valuable intel, but it corresponds with several other recent events in the public sphere."

The Rangers all exchanged curious looks as the holographic displays showed records of several private emails and lists. Caldwell gestured to the screens, "From the data recovered off Kluviert's laptop, we were able to flag numerous communiques between him and various high ranking members of the UNAF, among them a Belgian General in High Command by the name of Verhoeven. Not surprisingly, those people have contributed generous amounts of money to Kluviert's political campaign funds."

"Sir, what interest would the UNAF have with Kluviert's politics?" Erik asked curiously.

"Over the last several months, several UN embassies have come under attack from terrorists," Caldwell explained, "All sources point to Xeno activity. It's been underplayed in the news and swept aside. The most likely reason is to not cause panic or concern among the populace. I imagine those UNAF commanders would be eager to centralize the world military forces for security reasons under Kluviert's United Earth initiative. It's a perfect pretext for all of it."

Jake crossed his arms and nodded gravely, "The presence of the Xenos around Kluviert in London might suggest collusion. It's possible he's really been compromised after all."

Caldwell changed the displays while Erin chimed in, "That's not all. The listening devices I planted earlier recorded that Kluviert is trying to encourage business magnates like the Corporate King to back his campaign too with promises of great benefits. As long as the military industrial complex stays in place, King and his ilk will surely be profiting. Imagine a super powered coalition of business and military leaders all backing this guy."

The General paced restlessly, "I'm afraid the most disturbing news is yet to be revealed. It seems the communiques and the conversation with Mr. King corroborate the Masseys' concerns with all this. I believe now that Kluviert means to assassinate several members of the sitting UN Security Council."

Bharata blinked in shock, "What? I don't understand. Why?"

Caldwell continued his pacing, "A business meeting is not the only reason Kluviert is in London right now. Later this week, the UN Council is going to meet and cast votes on furthering his Pan- Global government initiative. There are three members of the Security Council who are staunchly opposed to the idea and have vowed to vote against it, an American, a Russian, and a Chinese representative. Their influence carries a lot of weight and may very well be deciding factors in the vote."

"So you think Kluviert wants to off of his political enemies who would undermine the approval of his idea?" Martin surmised.

Caldwell nodded, "in two days time, Kluviert will be hosting a black tie gala in London with many influential people hoping he can drum up enough money and support for the passage of the vote. He's invited his cronies along with these opposition leaders in hopes he can sway them, or according to one of his emails, quote, show them a good time."

Jake rose from the table, "If that's Kluviert's scheme, then we can't let him get away with it. If we're going to blow this conspiracy wide open, then we've got to stop that assassination from happening and pin some concrete evidence against him."

The general nodded grimly and took his place at the head of the table again, "Indeed. Sergeant Massey, with your permission I'm going to contact your parents and see if they can't get us into that gala. Dr. Beckett? Julian? I'm going to need the two of you to help make preparations for a more covert operation this time."

The other Rangers rose from the table and gave dutiful salutes before Caldwell flicked off the holo projector, "Dismissed."

* * *

Two days later, late afternoon sunlight filtered into the R& D lab as the Nova Rangers met to make their last minute preparations before heading back to London for the evening gala. As Lucy and Julian went over a few things at their lab table, the Rangers gathered together to look themselves over and make sure they were dressed for their parts. Erik, Bharata, and Ella were all dressed like wait staff with the purpose to serve appetizers and keep watch over the partygoers on the main floor. Martin had put on his military dress blues while Erin wore a dark elegant evening dress with some gold colored trim along the edges. The last person to walk in was Jake dressed in a full black tuxedo with a matching bowtie.

"Cheers everyone," he said strolling in with a friendly nod, "You all look smashing this evening... even you Erin."

Erin rolled her eyes at the gentle teasing while Martin looked her over a moment, "I actually have to agree. Is that dress standard issue?"

Erin laughed and gave a sly smirk. She took his arm and leaned in close with him, "Now Martin, don't get any ideas. If I'm going as your date tonight, I've got to make the both of us look good, right?"

"How come Erin gets to dress up and do all the fun stuff tonight?" Ella asked in mild disappointment.

"Simple," the Red Ranger said, "I'm going as a representative of the UNAF. I'm going to work the room and I want someone nearby who's fluent in several languages just in case."

He turned to Julian nearby and gave a chuckle, "And don't worry Julian, I promise I'll have Erin home at a decent hour too. This is a work function after all."

Erin gave Martin a light playful swat in the rear end while feigning an innocent smile, "Speak for yourself Captain. I intend to enjoy myself tonight."

Erik caught a mild eye roll from Lucy before turning toward Jake with a laugh, "Hey, what's with the fancy duds Massey? You're going all out."

"Well old chap, if I'm really going to prove myself as a secret agent tonight, then I've got to look the part. Priya and I will both be trying to get closer to outing Kluviert's schemes while the Captain and Erin run cover for us."

"If you really want to get the job done and be a respectable agent, then you're going to need a few special gadgets," Lucy said walking over with a small tray of items, "Julian and I whipped these up last minute, but it might be helpful."

"Look at that! We've got our own Q-Branch right here," Jake beamed, "Thanks Dr. Beckett."

Lucy held up the first item and pointed to the buttons on a dressy wristwatch. "This watch has a small built-in flash bang grenade function which you can use if you get into a tough spot. It also tells you the time."

"Brilliant, you think of everything," Jake quipped while she held up the next item. It was a compact silver cigarette lighter.

"This lighter has a compact digital camera that you can use to take pictures and gather intel on party guests."

The last item Julian picked up and handed to the Silver Ranger. It was a small box of cigarettes, "These, you're going to want to be extra careful with."

"Why? Are they unfiltered?" Jake joked.

Julian shook his head, "Try laced with explosives. The end that you light has a very short fuse before it burns down and causes the rest of the stick to explode. It's a handy little demolition tool, but handle with care."

Jake tucked his new gear away, "Got it. Thanks you guys."

Lucy sighed and stuck her hands in her labcoat pockets, "If I'm going to be Q here, I suppose I should say something to the effect of, do try to bring this equipment back in one piece 007."

As Jake gave a wave and headed out the door, Erin tugged on Martin's arm and gestured for the rest of the team to follow, "Come on then everyone, we've got a dinner party to crash in merry old England."

* * *

Later that evening, the Rangers teleported back into London and met with their MI6 contact Priya Anwar. The gala was being held in the historic City of London area just east of Whitechapel and on the north side of the River Thames. The group made their way down the well lit street of the central business district and into a fancy building not far from the beautifully lit dome of St. Paul's Cathedral. Once inside the ritzy venue, the Rangers split up. Erik, Bharata and Ella filtered in with the wait staff and took trays of appetizers to serve to the crowd of well dressed businessmen and politicians who were present. Before they mixed into the hall filled with guests, Martin spoke quietly to Jake, "Are you going to be okay out there?"

"Not to worry M. 006 is on the case," Jake winked before heading off first with Priya on his arm.

As Martin and Erin made their way together and began talking to some other UNAF officers who were in attendance, Jake surveyed the floor in bewilderment while Priya tugged his sleeve. She had dressed in a stylish dark evening gown accented by some silver jewelry and wore her hair up. "I don't suppose you personally know anyone else here, do you?"

"Not a clue," Jake admitted while a live band warmed up on a nearby stage.

A lavish table with ice sculptures, fine finger foods, and glasses of drinks lined one side of the room while foreign and British dignitaries all chatted and socialized. Jake led them across the room to get a better view of the whole place and unconsciously scanned the second floor balconies for signs of any trouble. Military snipers could sometimes get a little paranoid about those things after all. "Maybe we should camp out here and keep watch?"

Priya shrugged and gave his arm a slight tug, "Or maybe we should try to work the crowd and gather some intel. That is why we're here, right?

"I'm a sniper luv. We hide in corners and generally stay out of sight so that we can watch others."

The MI6 agent laughed gently while taking a champagne flute and handing it to him, "Well you're not going to get very far as a secret agent doing that. Isn't that why you dressed up to the nines tonight? I thought I told you to drop the 007 bit before."

Jake frowned slightly toward her before she patted his arm, "Trust me, just follow my lead out here and you should be fine."

The two mingled for a bit and spoke to some of the younger socialite guests at the party. When they did, Jake let Priya take the lead in the conversation and he would follow up with any gaps she left open.

As they disengaged from one group of people, the Silver Ranger was halted when he spotted someone across the room. Standing by the refreshment table were both of his parents. His mother was busy talking to some other dignitaries while his father caught the eyes of his son and gave a quiet smile. Col. Massey raised a glass as if giving a toast to him before tilting his head to the left.  
Jake moved to step forward and speak to his father but the Colonel shook his head and quietly gestured with his glass toward the left again. The Silver Ranger peered over and spotted Mr. Kluviert meeting with people in a sort of impromptu receiving line.

Jake nodded as if catching on to the cue and headed over with Priya in tow, "Wait here. I'm going to say hello to our gracious host."

Jake waited in line and when he finally came to Kluviert, he shook his hand with a big smile, "Mr. Kluviert, you might not know me, but I'm Jake Massey. I'm a big admirer of yours and wanted to thank you for hosting this event."

Kluviert gave a flattered smile, "Massey? You aren't the son of the Colonel Massey are you? With the wife in the British Embassy to the UN?"

"That's the one," Jake said, "A bit of a surprise I'm sure."

Kluviert shrugged, "As far as I was aware, they were among some of the people voicing skepticism over my political initiative. It was my hope that with the vote coming up, I could try to sway some minds at this event tonight."

"I understand completely," Jake lied, "It's a shame really that my parents disagree with me on the issue. I find it a little frustrating that they aren't looking forward enough, to see the big picture and recognize genius and vision when they see it."

"Hmm, do you think you might still be able to talk some sense into them?" Kluviert asked with a curious expression, "If so, perhaps you'd like to join me and some of my other supporters for a small conference in a bit. You may find the meeting... stimulating."

"I would be honored. Thank you sir," Jake said playing up the gratitude and naivety. Kluviert led Jake away from the main banquet hall along with a small crowd of other supporters and backers. Priya picked up on this and quietly followed along to tail Jake.

* * *

After leaving the hall, the group reconvened deeper in the building within a sort of open conference hall. At the large table, Kluviert's assistant Midori was waiting for him patiently. As the guests all took seats, Jake took out his lighter and made to look as if he were playing with it idly, all the while using the secret camera mode to take pictures of all the other conspirators present.

As Kluviert took the floor, he began speaking to talking points of his upcoming political campaign that Jake was already aware of from the briefings at Atlantis Base. While he sat patiently and pretended to listen, he noticed Midori quietly step out of the room. Little did he know that the Asian woman had spotted Priya trying to sneak her way around the corner of conference hall. Having recognized the young British Indian woman, Midori had gotten suspicious and decided to deal with the intruder in her own way.

While Jake was busy at the "secret" meeting, Priya snuck around one of the side hallways to try and get a better listening spot when she caught sight of Kluviert's Asian assistant leaving the room and heading down another walkway. The agent changed her mind and decided to go follow the aide instead hoping that it might lead to something interesting or incriminating. Priya stayed out of sight and tailed the aide down a hallway and back outisde until they reached a small rear garden of the building. It looked like it was a secluded little courtyard and the aide ducked behind view of some bushes.

Priya followed and quietly rounded the corner only to stop in surprise. To her shock, she found the white skirt and blazer of the Asian woman laying on the ground as if she had just vanished or evaporated into thin air. As Priya looked around in confusion to try and make sense of the bizzare sight, she was surprised as the chameleon Xeno burst from the side bushes draped it its camouflaged mode. Before the agent could draw a small concealed pistol, the Xeno whipped her tail around and slammed Priya back with a forceful swat. The agent flew backward and struck her head on the ground, knocking her unconscious.

As she lay helpless on the ground, the chameleon alien snorted, "I'm growing tired of your interference. This time, I'll make certain you don't escape."

* * *

Back in the conference hall, the secret meeting began to adjourn and Jake saw the Asian woman in white named Midori return to the room. She quickly headed over to her boss and leaned over to quietly whisper something into Kluviert's ear. The politician glanced over at Jake and whispered back a few instructions before gesturing to a few other people near the table. Kluviert ambled over and wore a snake-like smile, "Mr. Massey, if you don't mind I was hoping you could stay and talk with me a little bit more?"

"Me? Oh... well sir, if it's all the same to you, I think I'd like to get back to the party now and..."

The Silver Ranger tried to give a polite smile and rise before feeling a pair of strong hands clamp down on his shoulders from behind and force him back down into his seat. Kluviert eyed him with a cool predatory smirk, "Please. I insist."

Jake glanced to the two clone security guards standing behind him as they held him down in his seat. "Hey, get your hands off me! What's the meaning of all this?"

"I should be asking you the same thing," Kluviert said as his men gripped Jake tighter, "You think you're so clever by getting in here and trying to meddle in my master plan? You're incredibly foolish to think we're going let you leave this place without paying a steep price."

Jake calmly met Kluviert's gaze and quietly undid his special watch while activating the flash bang device, "Oh, I wasn't assuming anything mate. You on the other hand shouldn't assume I'm not going to give up without a fight either."

Kluviert laughed, "Perhaps not, but you're in no position to make threats right now boy."

"Maybe not, but I'm in the position to drop a stun grenade on your ass," the Silver Ranger said as he slammed the explosive watch on the table, and dove for cover under the table. The watch detonated and stunned Kluviert along with the other guards in a powerful blast of light and sound.

As the men in the room staggered about blindly, Jake sprung up from under the safety of the table and moved to escape. He kicked the table over Kluviert and shoved over a few blinded security men before Jake sprinted for the door. As he went for the exit, he paused in fear when it opened revealing a monstrous creature barring his path. Kluviert's assistant Midori stood in his way only she had begun to undergo a transformation. Her holographic stealth projectors rippled causing her human features to give way to that of the chameleon Xeno Trioceras. Before Jake could react or reach for his morpher, the Xeno agent opened her mouth and lashed out her iron tongue in a vicious attack.

The tongue attack struck Jake right in the forehead and the Silver Ranger was dropped back to the ground. The violent force of the blow knocked Jake unconscious and he collapsed to the floor in a stunned heap. As he lay blacked out on the ground, the chameleon Xeno sauntered forward and loomed over her prey with a predatory smile.

"Well done," Mr. Kluviert said as he came over to join his accomplice while rubbing his eyes clear from the flash bang.

The other clone security guards approached and picked the limp form of Jake off the ground before dragging him away. Trioceras watched and gave a sigh, "A pity you don't want me to kill him."

Kluviert shook his head with a diabolical smile, "In good time my dear. For now, let's see if the Ranger and his female companion will have anything interesting to tell us. I have a feeling that they might still be useful."

* * *

Meanwhile, back in the banquet hall the party was still going on. Guests were still milling about talking and drinking while many others filtered out on to the dance floor while a live band played some jazz numbers. Amidst the press of partygoers, Martin and Erin blended in and kept their eyes open while dancing together. As they did, Erin turned to the Red Ranger with a little chuckle, "You're not too bad on your feet sir. I don't suppose you'll be showing off any of your break-dance moves from the Officer's Ball this past winter?"

Martin responded by giving her a little pinch in the side, "Ha ha. Very funny Erin. Just keep your eyes on those Council members. It's been too quiet."

While the continued to do an easy swing dance, Martin spoke quietly into his comm, "Jake, what's your status?"

He was greeted by static and no reply. "Jake, are you there? Sergeant, please respond."

Still nothing. The two Rangers looked at each other as Martin tried one more time, "Damn it Massey, where are you?"

They stepped off the dance floor and Martin reached for his morpher, "Luce, I'm going to need you to try and pinpoint Jake's morpher. I think something's gone terribly wrong."

"I think you're right Captain," Erin said spinning him around and pointing to one of the second floor balconies of the banquet hall. To their horror, they saw several clone soldiers in their Eidolon armor fan out along with a handful of Xeno battle drones. All of them carried their energy weapons and looked ready to use them on everyone in the crowd.

The Red Ranger quickly radioed the others while keeping his eyes on the invaders, "Rangers, first things first. Looks like we've got some gatecrashers."


	24. For God, King, and Country

**Mission 24: Part 4  
**

As the fog began to clear, Jake Massey opened his bleary eyes and tried to focus through the dull throbbing pain coming from his forehead. The last thing he remembered was running into that chameleon Xeno and getting knocked out in the conference hall. It had all happened so fast and…

He stopped and began to look around while trying to figure out where he was. He could see that he was in some sort of warehouse. The upper windows were open to let the cooler evening air inside and from it, he could make out what looked to be some familiar buildings of the Docklands. If he had to guess, he was probably somewhere in Canary Wharf located in East London. The Ranger tried to move his arms but found them to be tied up with rope in a spread position.

He was propped up on a heavy wooden platform likely used for loading small shipping cargo and to his relief, he saw that Priya was also with him in the same restrained position. From the looks of it, she seemed to be regaining consciousness too. When Jake looked up, he saw Mr. Kluviert standing by along with the chameleon Xeno Trioceras and a handful of Eidolon clone soldiers. The politician watched him and gave a derisive sneer while he walked over, " Well... had a nice little nap, did we?"

He gestured over to where his Xeno accomplice had placed Jake's morpher on a work bench. Beside it, she had put a small jamming device to blot out its signal beacon. "Don't bother with the heroics Ranger. You're not going to need that here."

"What have you done Kluviert?" Jake growled while he struggled against his restraints, "We're not at the gala anymore so what's your game? What are you playing at? For God's sake man, you're working with the Xenos."

Kluviert snorted and reached up to pull off the black bow tie off Jake's neck, "You seem to fancy yourself some kind of ridiculous spy. I'll indulge you with a little villain monologue."

"Damn, and I forgot my secret tape recorder in my purse," Priya quipped venomously.

Kluviert ignored her and carried on, "As we speak, Xeno Machina assassins are eliminating my political enemies at that gala across town. With the spate of recent terror attacks, this would be no different and an especially tragic one given the members involved."

"So it is about that big vote later in the week. You want to use this as your excuse to push your unity government and increase the security state," Jake deduced.

Kluviert grinned, "Precisely. Once the measure goes through, it will only be a matter of time before my allies in the military and business sectors nominate me to take the chief position of the world government. But it's fools like you that are keeping this vision from becoming a reality."

"Are you a madman? What are you talking about?" Priya asked.

Kluviert paced, "Those of you who work against unity are the true enemies... it's your backwards and outdated ideology holding us back, this nativism and nationalism. Do you know what I despise? I've always hated the Americans. They're always waving their flags, touting their accomplishments, and having this arrogance and pride about them. They really believe that their people can act on their freedom to shape the world... that they are truly an exceptional nation compared to all others."

"I hate to break it to you mate, but they've accomplished a hell of a lot more than the Dutch ever have," Jake sniped back earning a scowl from the politician.

"The only people I hate as much as the Americans are the British. You were once like them, spreading the glory of your empire across the globe. Look at you now. You and your countrymen still share this same arrogant belief in your exceptionalism. You continue to side with your American cousins and resist true progress."

"Better to live free and die trying to be great," Jake replied coldly, "Which is more than I can say about you. You're in bed with the aliens."

"Ah yes... this," Kluviert laughed, "My assistant is a representative of Warmaster Hellspont himself. I will do my part, but they are the ones who will truly bring about a new world order. Once I take control of the world government, I've agreed to stand down and let the Xenos take Earth in exchange for their technological gifts... the same ones your military keeps from us."

"What? Why?" Priya gasped in horror.

"They are the race who will make us all one," Kluviert said, "Don't you understand? They have the technology to advance the progress of our entire human race. We can live forever. We can be made better with cybernetic upgrades and implants. We can become a truly amazing race of beings and live in a unified utopia."

"It's all a deluded fantasy Kluviert," Jake retorted, "The Warmaster won't honor his bargain. All the Xenos will give you is death, misery, and tyranny. They want to make us go extinct and enslave us."

"That's enough out of you Terran," Trioceras snarled as she briefly gripped Jake's neck and squeezed.

"That's fine," Priya spat defiantly, "We're not going to tell you anything or cooperate with your scheme either."

"Very well," Kluviert shrugged, "I've grown tired of you two as it is. Guards?"

The Eidolons stepped forward with their blaster staffs and made ready to execute the two as if they were in a firing line. Jake called out, "I have to say Kluviert, I'm a little disappointed. Here I thought there might be some sharks with frickin lasers on their heads. If you're going to kill us... can you at least be a sport and let me have a last cigarette? They're in my coat pocket."

Kluviert snorted and gave a nod, gesturing for the clones to get the smokes. The leader of the clones took the box of explosive cigarettes and stuck one in Jake's mouth. Before he lit it, Jake said, "Best give the rest of the smokes to your lads, eh? I won't be needing them so we may as well enjoy this all together."

The lead clone passed out the other smokes to the other troops before lighting everyone's. Jake held the lit explosive in his mouth watching as the other clones stepped back and took aim with their own lit cigarettes as well. Just as the fuse reached its limit, Jake spat the cigarette out and dropped it near the base of the wooden platform which trapped him. To everyone's shock, the explosive cigarettes detonated making a horrific mess of the clone soldiers while the wooden structure holding Jake was blown to pieces.

A cloud of smoke and fire filled the warehouse and Jake scrambled in the confusion to free Priya. Kluviert backpedaled and ran from the warehouse to escape while Trioceras covered the doorway. As Jake recovered his morpher, he instantly morphed and took a brief moment to look at the mangled bodies off the clone troops, "You blokes really ought to know that smoking can be bad for your health."

"Jake, he's getting away!" Priya called but the two were halted by the lizard-like Xeno.

"You're not going anywhere."

Jake gestured for Priya to stand back while he called his Fusion Striker in rifle mode. "I don't have time for you lizard face. Get out of my way!"

The Ranger fired several shots but Trioceras nimbly dodged the bolts and counter-attacked with her own iron tongue. She lashed out several times hitting the concrete floor and made another sweeping tail strike but Jake tumbled clear and went Supernova to jet to the top of some nearby shipping crates.

The chameleon snarled, "You think you can escape up there Ranger? Guess again!"

She lashed her tongue out but Jake caught the tongue at the last minute with his gloved hand. He quickly converted his weapon to blade mode and hacked the end of the tongue off with one swift slash. Trioceras retracted her tongue and shrieked in pain while stumbling backward. Seeing his chance to go on the offensive, Jake jetted down and tried to make a swooping slash at her but the Xeno went invisible with her stealth projectors.

The Silver Ranger missed and hovered, making several blind slashes while trying to find his opponent. Unfortunately, she used her tail to hook his ankle and drag him down to the ground where she tackled him and tried to pin the Ranger down. Although she was unable to speak from the mangled tongue, the Xeno struggled on the ground and tried to bite at Jake's neck while she held him down.

Just when things were looking bad, Priya rushed up from behind and grabbed the fallen Fusion Striker to plunge the blade into the Xeno's back. The monster howled again and turned to shove Priya down as the weapon fell right into Jake's hands. The moment the Xeno turned back toward her prey, Jake converted his weapon back into rifle mode and leveled the gun for a fully charged point-blank shot.

Trioceras was unable to say anything further as Jake pulled the trigger and destroyed her with a merciless attack. When the smoke and flames subsided from the secondary blasts, Priya hurried over to where Jake lay, demorphed with his tuxedo torn and singed in several spots.

"Jake? Are you okay?" she asked in alarm as she knelt at his side, touching his face and gently shaking him.

"Bloody Xeno," Jake grunted as he shook off the blast and smiled to his partner, "Thanks for the assist."

Priya grinned in relief and helped him to his feet before they hurried out of the warehouse after Kluviert. When they reached the parking lot, they saw his car start up and and make its way from the docks. Jake growled, "Damn! What now?"

Priya looked around quickly and spotted a silver Aston Martin car parked nearby one of the upscale commercial trade buildings nearby. She hurried over and pulled some hairpins using them to pick open the lock. As the car alarm went off, she pulled off a panel from the driver's side and silenced the alarm before hot-wiring the car for their use. "Get in!"

Jake grinned from ear to ear as he hopped in the passenger seat and they took off after Kluviert, "A female spy who can fight Xenos and hotwire expensive cars too? That is really hot."

* * *

Meanwhile, the banquet hall in central London devolved into chaos as the alien assassins attacked and the other Nova Rangers sprung into action. They morphed in midstride and split off to deal with the threats. As a few clones aimed their weapons and fired at the UN Security Council members, Erin dove forward and activated her morpher's shield function to stop the attack and save the diplomats. While she rolled to the ground and recovered her footing, Erik and Ella raised their own shields and joined her in forming a protective shield wall around the targeted party guests.

While tables were knocked over and other guests fled, Martin pulled his standard plasma pistol and fired a few shots in reply. One of the drones went down while the other enemies ducked for cover. He turned to the Green Ranger and shouted, "Bara! Snipers on the balcony there! Do your thing!"

"Yes sir!" Bharata called as he went Supernova and jetted up to the second floor balustrades overlooking the banquet hall. The Xeno snipers turned on him and made ready to fire but he activated his morpher's stealth mode to go invisible. The aliens fired at empty air as the camouflaged Green Ranger dashed forward and activated his sidearm plasma cutter blade at the last moment to cut down his foes.

On the first floor, Martin raised his own shield and stood his ground locked in a firefight with the last few clone soldiers who were protected by heavy cover. Erin called in her sonic cannon and rushed in to help. "No worries Captain, I've got you covered!"

She fired off some modified sonic waves from the gun which swept around that end of the banquet hall and staggered the clone troopers. All of the disoriented aliens dropped their weapons and fell to their knees. They tore off their helmets and clutched their ears before falling over when Erin let up with her sonic attack.

"Nice job Erin," Martin smiled while the other Rangers hurried over to capture the enemy assassins. He turned back to the ruined banquet hall where guests were cowering, "Is everyone okay here? I think it's all over now."

The Rangers powered down as the party guests recovered their wits and got back to their feet in awe. While the Rangers helped the shaken people there, Erin radioed Atlantis Base, "We just stopped the alien assassination plot. Any word on Jake?"

Lucy's voice came back over the comm, "I just picked his morpher's beacon up again. He was just speaking with General Caldwell and now he wants to talk to you guys. It's an emergency and he needs your help."

* * *

"That's right Captain, we're headed into central London! Get ready with the roadblock!" Jake called as he and Priya pursued Mr. Kluviert in a high speed car chase out of East London. Priya took the wheel and skillfully wove through traffic as Kluviert tried to shake them through some alleys and roundabouts. The MI6 agent gritted her teeth, "Damn, he's a better driver than I thought."

"Then let's try and slow him down a little," Jake said as he recalled his Fusion Striker and opened the sunroof of the car. The Silver Rangers stood up and took aim with his rifle weapon to try and shoot at Kluviert's car. With all the weaving and abrupt maneuvers, it was hard for even a skilled marksman like Jake to line up a steady shot. As the chase intensified and several police cars joined in to try and stop the two rogue vehicles, Jake saw that he had to end things quickly.

The chase led back into the streets of Westminster and they were approaching Trafalgar Square. The car lurched again and Jake steadied himself before lining up a shot on one of Kluviert's rear tires. He fired and the bolt struck its mark, blowing out the tire and causing the car to fishtail amid a trail of smoke. Civilians on the street began to panic and scramble out of the way as Kluviert's car jumped the curb and tried to cut across the square. To his horror, he saw the other Nova Rangers and several UNAF troops stationed at a blockade to corner him there. He tried to turn the car abruptly but lost control. The vehicle flipped and rolled to a stop between the Horatio Nelson Column and the foot of the National Gallery.

Priya stopped the car and got out with Jake as the other police cars pulled up all around the place. It was complete chaos amid the smoke, flashing lights, and sirens. Several officers tried to stop the two but Priya held up her MI6 badge to make them back off. As they approached the smoking wreck of the vehicle, Kluviert crawled out and collapsed flat on his face. He now looked as dirty and tussled as Jake did. The politician reached out to try and grab at his mobile phone which had fallen nearby but he was stopped as Jake stepped right on his fingers, pinning them and the phone to the ground.

"That's far enough Kluviert. It's all over," Jake said solemnly, "You can kiss your political dreams goodbye. Your plot against the UN is going to be exposed and you along with all your conspirators are going to be put away for a very long time."

Kluviert coughed, "You stupid boy, do you really think you can build a case against me? You have no concrete evidence. No one heard me say the things I said to you in that warehouse."

"That's where you're wrong mate," Jake smiled as he stepped harder on Kluviert's hand and tapped his morpher, "You see this thing? Ever since you invited me to your secret conference, I've had this thing on record. It picked up everything... including your villainous monologue."

Jake pressed his foot down even harder on Kluvier making the craven politician howl before Priya roughly hauled the villain to his feet and handcuffed him with a few of the London constables. "Mr. Maximilian Kluviert, by the authority of Her Majesty's government, I'm placing you under arrest for attempted murder and conspiracy against the United Nations Council."

As the other Rangers came over to circle around Jake and congratulate him, Priya gave him a little wink before following the other policemen, "That was a hell of a second date Jake. I'd love to see how you plan to top this one. Nice work 006."

Jake watched her walk away before Ella gave him a little tug on the sleeve, "Jake? Are you okay? You look like an absolute wreck."

"I'll be fine," he said tiredly, "And thanks for the help everyone."

Martin nodded, "We stopped the assassination plot and everyone is okay. You did good out there sergeant."

Jake breathed a sigh of relief, "You know what? It's been a rough night. If it's okay with you guys, I think I'd like to go back home to the base for a while. I'm sure Caldwell will want to hear all about this."

* * *

Later that week, Jake made his way back from another meeting at the Command Tower. He had been debriefed and filled out a complete report of everything that had happened in London. No doubt it would take time to really pry open the whole conspiracy he had helped unearthed, but the gears were in motion. As he made his way back to his room, he passed through the central atrium and stopped when he caught sight of two familiar figures.

There waiting by some benches were both his parents. The Silver Ranger strode over in complete shock before he stood in front of them. "Dad? Mom? I... what are you doing here?"

Col. Massey smiled and exchanged a salute with his son before his mother came to give him a hug, "We wanted to come by and see you Jake. After everything that happened... after all you had done to uncover Kluviert's plot... now the danger has begun to pass."

"You did well son," Col. Massey said putting a hand on Jake's shoulder, "I hate that we had to drag you into all this, but you took the intel we gave you and did the right thing. We're proud of you."

Jake nodded and took it all in quietly, "I take it that part of the reason I've heard even less from you guys was because of this whole conspiracy? That you were just trying to protect me from it?"

"Yes dear," Mrs. Massey said touching his cheek, "We're all in dangerous lines of work. There were too many people around your father I who we weren't able to trust. Ironic how the person we wanted to protect most became the only one we could... and the one we put at risk."

Jake gave his mother another hug, "It's okay Mom. I think I understand now... and I forgive you."

Mr. Massey smiled warmly, "Jake, you should know the UN Council took that vote and Kluviert's motion failed to pass. Still, it's too bad we didn't get a chance to really catch up with you at that gala in London. Your mother and I will be returning home to Bristol in a few days. We spoke to General Caldwell and he said you can come home with us if you'd like. You could take some time off and visit with us for a week."

"Yeah... I'd like that Dad. Thanks," Jake answered happily.

Mr. Massey stopped and pulled a datapad from his briefcase before handing it to Jake, "Oh. Before I forget, I picked up some mail for you. Someone by the name of Priya Anwar sent you a letter."

The Silver Ranger took the datapad and looked at it thoughtfully before giving a small smile and nodding, "Thanks. I'll tell you what. I'll see you guys at home in a few days. There's something I need to take care of first."

* * *

That evening, Jake beamed back into London and made his way into an outdoor restaurant bar and grill. It was located near the south end of the Westminster Bridge and offered a scenic view of the Parliament Building, the Big Ben clock tower, and the London Eye Ferris Wheel. After buying a martini, the Silver Ranger walked out onto the well lit patio where patrons sat outside enjoying the mild summer evening over drinks and appetizers. In order to not draw too much attention to himself, he had dressed down to some appropriate civilian clothes, a gray polo and some dressy jeans to blend in with the crowd. At the other end of the bar and grill, he found the person he was looking for.

Priya was standing at the railing of the large outdoor patio quietly looking out over the River Thames. He walked over beside her and gave a small grin, "Hey. I got your message. I would have come sooner, but I got held up with something earlier."

She gave a small catlike smile and touched his forearm, "I was actually a little worried you might not show up. After everything we went through, maybe you'd think being around MI6 operatives was hazardous to your health."

"You didn't forget what I do for a living, did you?" Jake asked in equal amusement while looking out toward the lit up Parliament Building. He paused and turned to her, "You know… as crazy as this little op was, it was kinda fun and I thought we got on rather well, don't you think?"

Priya nodded, "Quite. You know… it's not like we don't ever have to see each other again. We can still keep in touch and with a little luck, we may cross paths on a future job."

The Silver Ranger gave a light laugh, "I hope so, but I suppose I should enjoy the time I have right now. I'll be here in England for a few more days. I got some leave to spend time with my parents back in Bristol."

"Jake that's wonderful, but you're still free to hang around London tonight I hope?"

Jake nodded and held up his martini glass, "I would like to try and make it into a third date here. Would you care to join me?"

She pointed to the drink and laughed, "Oh my goodness. Still going with the Bond impersonation? How do you take your martini? Shaken or stirred?"

Jake smiled and took a big sip before stepping closer. As he wrapped an arm around her waist and drew her close, he gave her a slow seductive kiss on the lips causing her to blink and lose her composure for a moment.

"I see… definitely shaken," she said breathlessly before pulling away.

Jake laughed gently, "Come on. Let's get out of here. Maybe let me buy you some dinner?"

Priya smiled gently and spoke quietly in his ear, "My flat's not too far from here. How about we just skip dinner tonight and you join me for breakfast instead?"

Two exchanged a conspiratorial look and laughed again before Jake took her hand and followed her out of the bar. Pretending to be a secret agent had been fun and while Jake Massey had gotten his fill of it, he figured it couldn't hurt to be 006 for just one more night.

* * *

 **A/N:**  
 **And cue the James Bond theme here. Coming up next, when a routine mission to the Amazon Rainforest goes awry, Erin Reilly finds herself cut off from her friends and surrounded by enemy forces. With an unlikely ally in tow, she'll have to find a way to escape and face the aliens in a contest proving the survival of the fittest. Until then!**


	25. Nineteen Hours

**Mission 25: Part 1  
**

Beads of sweat ran down the neck of Lieutenant Erin Reilly as she made her way through the thick brush of the Amazon Jungle. A thin steamy mist hung in the air as the sounds of colorful birds rang out from the treetop canopy above. Despite wearing a combat helmet, Erin blew aside a strand of lose brown hair and slapped at her sweaty neck where a fly had been buzzing. In travel brochures and television nature shows, the Amazon was always portrayed as some beautiful and majestic oasis of life and greenery. In some ways it was, but in others it was a hot, uncomfortable, bug infested place for soldiers tramping through.

Nearby, Erik and Ella tiredly flanked her in silence as they waded though the bushes and followed behind the rest of the squad. As she shifted the weight of her pack, Erin grumbled and wished she was back at Atlantis Base rather than trudging through the wilderness of Northern Brazil on a training exercise with other UNAF forces.

Local South American units were providing instruction to other special forces of the UNAF in jungle warfare just in case they were ever called upon to assist against an alien attack in those environments. So far, the only enemies the Nova Rangers had been worried about fighting were fatigue, dehydration, and jungle spiders as big as your fist. Then again, there was also the unit of black clad STAR troopers who were also present at the right flank of the Rangers while they carried out their scouting patrol. Perhaps it wasn't fair to call the STARs enemies per say. The two teams had fought side by side on several occasions now and developed a sort of working relationship. It was an unspoken one of grudging respect and mutual rivalry with each other.

They continued on for a way before the local scouts called a halt. Martin called for Jake and Bharata to spread out and join him on standing watch while the rest of the patrol stopped to take a short rest. Erin sat down on a rock and took out a canteen of water, eager to take a refreshing drink. As she sipped some cool water, she looked over to where Ella had already plopped down by a large tree and called Erik over to examine a heat rash on her leg. The Yellow Ranger smirked to herself as Erik began to apply some ointment to Ella's condition and show her some extra attention. Maybe it wasn't planned on Ella's part, but the Pink Ranger didn't seem eager on wasting the opportunity either.

Moments later, Erin heard her name called and saw Jake standing watch nearby. He was smoking a cigarette and idly cradling his sniper rifle in his arms, "Hey Lieutenant, I don't suppose you've got some Irish Whiskey in that canteen of yours, do you?"

"Nice try Jake. Even if I did, I wouldn't share it with you," she teased back gently. She stopped to survey the campsite and saw the STAR troopers relaxing in some shade. Off to the side, their leader Captain Jeffery Austin sat cleaning out his rifle. Erin got up off her rock and ambled over to sit down near the leader of their rivals.

He looked up slowly as she took a seat and offered her canteen to share with him, "Have some water sir. Don't want to cramp up out here, right?"

Austin scrutinized the canteen for a moment causing her to sigh, "Relax sir. I didn't put poison in it or anything."

"You aren't flirting with me or something, are you Lieutenant? You know I'm a married man."

The Yellow Ranger suppressed another grumble and took back the canteen, "No Captain. I'm just trying to be nice here. If you're not thirsty, then that's fine too. You can just say so."

Austin looked at her and went back to his cleaning, "You didn't want to sit with your team?"

Erin shrugged, "I guess I thought I'd just try coming over here and being friendly for a change."

"You know the way we are with Nova Squad, right?" Austin said, "We tend to just keep things professional and competitive between each other and it's worked out fine. That's how we like it."

"Maybe, but it doesn't necessarily have to be that way either," Erin argued, "We're not like the Xenos and you don't have to fight us too. We're both on the same side and we've been working together more. Don't you think we should be trying to build some bridges? Maybe work a little on becoming friends?"

Austin snorted, "Listen, that whole mushy friendship, family, group hug stuff might work for you Rangers but it's not the way we STARs do things."

Erin frowned again in mild annoyance, whether it was the jungle heat or Captain Austin's dismissive attitude, she couldn't be sure. "If you're saying you think we're soft, you couldn't be more wrong. Our team has faced down its fair share of world ending Xenos several times over."

Austin continued wiping his weapon, "True enough, but you keep forgetting your team has all those special gizmos and power suits to back you up. Without them, I'm willing to bet things might be a bit harder for you."

Erin grew even more incensed, "Just you wait Captain. I'll prove you wrong. My whole team will prove you wrong."

She turned on her heel and stormed off muttering to herself while slipping in a few Gaelic curse words under her breath, "What a humongous jackass. Thinks he and his men are God's gift to this green earth..."

Her rambling was cut short as an emergency transmission came in over her morpher. It was from Atlantis Base and sent by General Caldwell. Their base commander's voice sounded on the other end, "Rangers, stand by for enemy contacts. Telemetry has just picked up a massive wave of enemy drop pods heading in the general direction of the Amazon region. The pods should be landing all over the area in minutes."

Everyone in the campsite stared in shock and scrambled to reorganize. Amid the chaos, Martin radioed back, "General, what the heck is going on? Why is there an invasion force headed here of all places?"

"My guess? The aliens want to use the thick jungle as cover so they can drop a lot of troops and set up a staging ground for future attacks."

Lucy's voice cut in from her station at Ops, "Martin, I'm transmitting the entry vectors of the pods. Hopefully you and the other UNAF forces there will be able to ambush them."

The Rangers exchanged grim looks while Captain Austin slapped a fresh power cartridge into his energy rifle. "I say we give them a proper welcome. What about you guys?"

The Red Ranger nodded and turned to Bharata, "Bara, you know the most about fighting on this terrain. I want you on point. Jake, cover our rear."

* * *

The mixed unit moved forward and continued to make their way through the jungle while the lead scouts followed the map points sent from Atlantis Base to track the pods. As they pushed on and neared one of the points, Bharata grimaced, "Stay close everyone. There are going to be concentrated landings in the area. If the shooting starts, it'll be really easy to get cut off."

Erin took several deep breaths and mulled over Bara's warning as they spread out and took some cover behind large clumps of trees. Moments later, the skies lit up and the allies could hear the screaming whistling sounds of large projectiles coming from the air. They looked up to see a cloud of large objects crash through the canopy of the rainforest and strike the ground with great force. The Xeno drop pods landed in a series of thunderous booms which echoed through the jungle and sent clouds of tree branches, dirt, and vegetation spraying everywhere. Much to the humans' dismay, the drop pods crashed all around their position seeming to come from all sides. Perhaps their reentry points were thrown a little off course or maybe Atlantis Base's info was just an estimate, but the sheer number and locations of the pods surprised everyone present.

As the smoke and debris cleared, Martin wiped some dirt from his face and helped Ella to her feet as he gave a call to his other comrades, "Is everyone okay?"

Erin was about to call out and reply when she heard Austin's voice yell out in alarm, "Everyone, the pods are live! Contact!"

The large Xeno drop pods popped open and swarms of clone soldiers quickly poured out to secure the ground, but they weren't expecting some resistance in the area yet. Captain Austin and the STARs opened fire first and dropped several aliens while more continued to pour out and flood the area.

"Oh crap!" Erin gasped as she primed her weapon and began to fire from the brush. The whole scene quickly devolved into utter chaos.

The sounds of shouting and weapons fire echoed in the woods while jungle steam and smoke hung in the air. The Yellow Ranger ducked behind a tree as an alien blaster bolt struck the trunk and took off a large chunk of the wood. Energy weapons fire and blaster bolts erupted from all over shredding trees and bushes as the humans scrambled to get clear of the drop zone and reorganize. They had been unexpectedly surrounded and were now forced into a backpedaling skirmish. As Erin kept her head low and fumbled blindly to try and find one of her friends in the chaos, she thought back to some history books she had read and wondered if this was anything like the long wars which had once been fought in Vietnam.

As she pushed past a bush and fired at some distant clone soldiers in the mist, she spotted Captain Austin and one of the Brazilian scouts taking cover behind a fallen tree. She moved to join them but fell face first to the ground as the top of a nearby tree exploded into a cloud of splinters and wooden shrapnel. The surprise treeburst caught her allies off guard and they stopped to take cover for a minute. That moment allowed some of the enemy to close in an put them in a tighter crossfire.

Erin scrambled to her feet and saw a Xeno bolt strike the Brazilian soldier full in the torso killing him outright. As their ally dropped to ground with a large smoking scorch mark on his chest, another bolt from the side clipped Captain Austin in the thigh.

The wounded STAR trooper gave a grunt of pain as he fell to his side and pulled a grenade from his belt. Without missing a beat, he armed it and hurled the explosive into the brush where the offending fire was coming from. Seconds later, the grenade detonated killing the alien snipers in the resulting explosion. Erin reached for her morpher and instantly went Supernova in a yellow flash as she rushed forward to help her ally on the ground.

The Yellow Ranger pulled her plasma pistol and fired a few covering shots into the bushes to keep the aliens away before she knelt down beside the fallen STAR, "You okay Captain? Let's get out of here."

This time Austin didn't protest and he hooked his arm over her shoulder as she helped him up. She fired her jetpack and began making rapid leaps to get away since the thick forests prevented open flight there, "Hold on!"

Without wasting another moment, Erin jetted away with Captain Austin in tow and they made a quick escape deeper into the thick foreboding Amazon Rainforest. They didn't know where they were going, but as long as they got clear of the aliens and the weapons fire, they could figure the rest out later. While she made flying leaps, Erin looked about and used the sensors in her helmet to try and scan the surroundings for safe areas. Much to her dismay, it looked like alien drop pods were everywhere scattered through the forest. She and her wounded comrade made several course changes and detours to avoid enemy detection before they found a relatively quiet corner of the jungle to rest in.

* * *

In a decision to conserve power and her own strength, Erin powered down and helped to assist Captain Austin as they hobbled through the thick vegetation. Finally, they came upon a large stream and followed it to a wide rocky area around a tall waterfall. Having decided it would offer some much needed water and temporary protection, they decided to take refuge nearby the large surrounding rocks. Erin grunted tiredly as she helped drag Captain Austin toward the water and set him down on the ground.

He gave a look to her and made a mildly teasing snort, "You look like a complete mess Lieutenant. Don't tell me you're exhausted already."

Erin growled a little and filled up her canteen before coming over with a medkit from her gear, "If that's the way you want to thank me for saving your smug ass, then you're very welcome... sir."

She dug into the medkit and pulled some items before examining the blaster wound on Austin's leg. Although she had been trained in first-aid like all soldiers, she wished Erik was around to help on this one. He'd probably have a fit watching her sloppy application of treatment, but oh well.

"How's the leg? Do you still have feeling in it?"

Austin grunted as he poured some water on it to start cleaning the wound a little, "Yeah... hurts just a little, but I've been hit worse before."

Erin poured some peroxide on the injury, perhaps a little too much and almost laughed watching the STAR suck in a breath from the sharp sting. After applying some disinfectant and painkilling gel, she wrapped the wound up in a bandage. It wasn't perfect, but it would do. "Until we get back to base, I'm afraid that's the best we can do for now Captain."

Austin nodded and tested his leg. It didn't hurt as bad now, but it was still too weak to put his full weight on. "Right. Thanks Lieutenant Reilly. This dressing you put on isn't half bad for just a Communications Officer."

A Communications Officer you're really going to owe a lot after this one," she reminded him as she reached for her morpher and tried to radio for help. Erin to Nova Squad, please respond."

Nothing but static as a response. She tried again, "Erin to Nova Squad, come in. Martin? Erik? Ella? Is anyone there?"

She paused and frowned at her morpher. Something was very wrong here. As thick as the jungle was, there was no reason her transmission wouldn't be able to go through to her teammates. Either something had happened to them, or their signals were being jammed.

Austin fixed her with a serious look, "What's wrong? Why aren't they responding?"

Erin ignored him and tried calling Atlantis Base instead, "This is Erin Reilly to Atlantis Base, please respond. General Caldwell? Dr. Beckett? Can you hear me?"

Again she was met with static on the other end. She repeated her message and boosted the signal strength before a faint garbled transmission came back. If she had to guess, it was Dr. Beckett.

"Erin... are you? Rangers... cut off...jamming signals...wait... your position."

The Yellow Ranger took several breaths, "We're being jammed? Is everyone okay? You want us to wait here?"

"Yes... team okay... can't transporter lock... position... rescue party... nineteen hours."

Erin shook her head tiredly and tried to make sense of the garbled radio message, "Understood Dr. B. I'll wait here and send out a signal every two hours to check in. Reilly out."

As she put down the morpher, she took off her helmet and stripped down to her duty tank top to cool off in the heat. It was late afternoon and evening was approaching. At the very least the night would offer some cooler temperature and some cover from detection. It was doubtful the Xenos would even want to go tramping around the jungle blindly in the middle of the dark night. "Well... it looks like we're stuck for now. I'm guessing our friends will send a search party to track us down and help in nineteen hours?"

Captain Austin checked his watch and gave a sigh before prepping his rifle again, "All right then. I guess we'll have to make the most of it and stand our ground here."

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that," Erin said as she began clearing a campsite and spreading out some emergency field rations, "I guess even in this day and age with teleporters and hoverships, we've still gotta do some things the old fashioned way."

Austin shifted his weight on the ground and tried to get up, "Let me help out Lieutenant. I'm not a complete cripple after all."

She halted him and put a firm hand on his shoulder, "You're not going anywhere, sir. You need to rest and recover. I'll take care of this stuff. You can... I don't know, guard the campsite. If any Xenos show up, you can shoot them in the face. That's pretty much the only thing you STARs are trained to do correctly, right?"

"Given the circumstances, I'll let that one slide," he grumbled as he settled back on the ground. "Kinda ironic huh? I'll bet you're going to keep trying to make friends with me even here, aren't you?"

The Yellow Ranger gathered some dry kindling and worked to set up a fire pit with rocks, "Sure. Even if it kills you."

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that," he echoed in mild sarcasm.

Despite the bad situation they were currently in right now, Erin couldn't help but take in the absurdity of it all and laugh at the dark humor. Besides, maybe in nineteen hours she'd ether have a new friend or she'd do the Xenos a favor and give them one less STAR to worry about.

* * *

 **A/N:**  
 **Hey there everyone, I'm back. I just needed a couple weeks off to recharge and experiment with some new stories that aren't related to PR just so I don't get bored or stuck in a creative rut. I'll still be posting those other story chapters here and there but as far as this fic goes, it's time to get back to action. :)**


	26. Extraction Point

**Mission 25: Part 2  
**

As night fell over the Amazon, Erin Reilly and Captain Jeffery Austin sat huddled in a small rocky inlet near the waterfalls. The roar of the waters drowned out some of the sounds to the outside while the stone walls allowed for some measure of protection. They lit a small electric lantern to provide some light instead of a fire for fear that it might give away their position. After finishing a dinner of MRE's, the two soldiers reclined against the rocky walls to rest for the evening.

"Why don't you get some sleep," Erin said as she laid her assault rifle across her lap, "I'll take first watch."

"That's okay Lieutenant, I'm not really tired," Austin replied shifting his weight and getting comfortable.

Erin watched him a moment and gave a sigh, "It's all right sir. You don't have to act like such a tough guy all the time. I might not be a STAR, but I still know how to stand guard."

Austin laughed lightly, "You don't have to act so brave all the time either Lieutenant Reilly. I can see just how uneasy you are about everything right now."

"I'm not scared," she insisted with a frown while the STAR kept a level gaze on her. They sat like that for a minute before she relented somewhat, "All right... maybe a little."

"I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but you've never really struck me as much of a soldier type Lieutenant," he observed.

"Call me Erin," she said taking a breath, "If we're going to sit here and talk, then let's do it like people, not soldiers. We can start with each others names."

Austin glared at her before reluctantly shrugging, "All right, fine. Then I'm Jeff."

Erin nodded and continued her lookout, "You're right Jeff... being a soldier or a Ranger wasn't my first calling. I was originally going into academia."

Jeff glanced over curiously, "Something to do with languages? During my time at Atlantis, I heard you were pretty good with that stuff."

Erin nodded, "Yeah, I had actually done a lot of research on alien languages too... so that we could understand the Adventi and our Xeno enemies... maybe even negotiate with them."

"You really think it's worth spending time trying to reason with them?" Jeff muttered gesturing to his leg, "Every time they've come into contact with us, they've tried to kill people."

"Not all of them are bad," Erin said while thinking of their clone friend Taldyr on the moon, "I think there are many among the Eidolon soldiers who just don't know any better. They just have to realize that they're being used and that we humans are not so different from them."

Jeff sighed, "I've got to hand it to you Erin, you're a lot more idealistic than I gave you credit for. What made you want to be a Ranger then? Your job is to fight them after all."

"Same as why you joined up I suppose," she replied, "I saw the planet was in danger so I wanted to do my part. I figured I had this great talent, so why not put it to good use. I can't say my parents back home in Ireland were too pleased with my decision to join the service."

"Are you still doing it to prove something to them, or to yourself?"

Erin thought it over, "I don't know... maybe both? I might not be the best combatant on my squad, but I still think I have a lot to offer and I try to prove it to them every chance I get."

Jeff sighed thoughtfully and nodded, "You know... I can actually respect that."

"So what's your deal?" Erin asked, "I doubt your whole identity revolves around being a big macho soldier all the time, right?"

Jeff mulled it over, "Aright... well, I'm from the great state of Texas. Went to college on a football scholarship and married my high school girlfriend not long afterward. I graduated, joined the military and they said I had what it took to be in the Special Forces. I guess I still like butting heads and the hard-charging hard-fighting lifestyle just suits me."

Erin chuckled lightly, "I see. That explains a few things now."

Jeff frowned slightly toward her before she looked back over, "How does your wife feel about you putting your neck on the line? I know you STARs are often involved in some pretty fierce combat scenarios."

"She hates it," he replied more thoughtfully, "She'd rather I quit and just come home to have a kid... become more of a family man."

"That's not who you are?" Erin asked curiously.

"She doesn't understand," Jeff answered, "I'm fighting to secure our future and the safety of a future family. When the Xenos are defeated and Earth is at peace, then I'd feel a lot better about bringing a new life into the world."

"That's why you're so intense and aggressive about this stuff huh? That's why you fight so hard?" Erin asked in admiration.

"That's just between you and me," Jeff muttered with a slightly sheepish expression, "Or maybe some of the painkillers I took are making me talk a little loopy."

"Yeah... that's probably it," Erin smiled to herself as a companionable quiet fell over the cave and the Yellow Ranger continued her vigilant watch.

* * *

Meanwhile back in a UNAF staging base in Rio de Janeiro, Martin Sterling paced restlessly as he waited to hear back from either Atlantis Base or some of the local military officials. Despite the chaos and confusion of the battle in the rainforest, the other Rangers and STARs managed to regroup and evacuate for the time being. Meanwhile, the local UNAF forces under South American command went in to battle the major alien invasion force.

There was some fierce jungle fighting going on and all they knew was that it was slow going to root out all the enemies and secure ground. Understandably, the Rangers were on edge at the fact that Erin was missing while the STARs were equally troubled by their own missing captain. It was turning out to be a long trying evening for everybody.

Ella sat on a nearby bench holding a cup of coffee and worrying about her friend while Erik came to join her and offer some encouraging words. Meanwhile Jake and Bharata tried to keep their mind off of their worries and played some cards on one of the base's lounge tables. Martin continued to pace when he was approached by the second in command of the STARs who were present, Lt. Michael Reyes. The younger Latin American man gave a quick salute and nodded to the Red Ranger, "Captain Sterling? Any word on our people yet, sir?"

He shook his head, "I'm afraid not Lieutenant. I think it's safe to say we're just as uneasy as you guys are."

"Yes sir," Reyes answered with a mild grimace. "We can only hope they're okay."

They were interrupted as a young Brazilian woman approached them. She was a female military adjutant in an immaculate duty uniform, "Captain Sterling? Lieutenant Reyes? Can you both come with me please? General Ignacio Silva would like to see you both. I'm afraid the general doesn't speak English. Do either of you speak Portugese or Spanish?"

Both Martin and Reyes nodded, "That's fine. We can speak Spanish. Lead the way."

They both followed her down some hallways into the well furnished office of the base commander, General Silva. He was a shorter pudgy man, likely in his late fifties with thinning hair and a large dark mustache. He looked up from his paperwork when the two younger officers stopped and saluted him. He returned the gesture and reclined in his chair before speaking in Spanish, "Captain. Lieutenant. I read your initial statements of the incident in the jungle. You're very lucky you got out of there when you did. There's fierce guerilla fighting going on now and strong jamming signals coming from those Xeno drop pods. That's making things difficult to beam in reinforcements and pull out other units."

The Red Ranger nodded, "Sir, one of the STAR commanders is missing along with one of my Rangers. Do you have any word on them?"

Silva folded his hands, "Yes. Your home base has picked up a faint radio call from your Yellow Ranger. She and Captain Austin are all right, but they're cut off and can't be beamed out. We have their general location so that will make a search easier."

Lt. Reyes breathed a sigh of relief, "That's good news. Is there any way we can go and try to rescue them? Is there a spare Marauder gunship we can borrow?"

Silva grimaced, "We're a little short of materiel at the moment. All our transports are being committed to the current fight. The soonest we can free one up would be tomorrow afternoon."

"What? They might not last out there!" Reyes exclaimed but martin put a calming hand on his shoulder.

"Erin and Captain Austin are tough soldiers and they're smart. I have faith in both of them."

Reyes gave a skeptical look and took a moment to compose himself, "I hope you're right sir... for all our sakes."

* * *

The next day, Erin and Jeff woke up and ate a quick breakfast before surveying their camp around the waterfalls again. As they made their way outside and began to look around, Erin's morpher began to chime and she looked to see a written message pop up on a small display screen. She studied the odd message before realizing what it was, "Captain... these are navigational coordinates and a time. That must mean help is on the way."

"Great, just how far is it from here?" he asked as he hobbled along.

Erin cross checked it with a small topographic map that she carried of the region. She did some quick figuring and shrugged, "I'd say half a day's hike. There looks to be some higher ground and a clearing there. If our transporters are jammed up right now, it's going to take our friends some time to get here by air."

Jeff nodded and strapped his weapon to his pack, "All right... I'm already going to slow us up a little here so we can't waste any time. Let's get a move on and keep a lookout for any alien patrols between here and the extraction point. No unnecessary risks either."

Erin gathered her gear up and offered a hand to him for support, "Okay... lead the way."

He looked at her a moment and raised an eyebrow, "Are you sure you'll be okay taking orders from someone else for a while... and a STAR on top of that?"

"If that's what it takes to survive, sir. I think I can put up with it for just a few more hours."

Several hours passed while the two allies strained and trudged through the rough jungle terrain. Every so often, they'd take a short rest for Jeff's leg to recover or carefully circumvent a new obstacle in their path. As they walked, Jeff huffed, "Well... I've gotta say, this has been one interesting joint exercise hasn't it?"

"I guess," Erin answered as she helped him along, "I don't think it's been a complete waste... do you? I think we both got to see that getting to know each other a little better hasn't been that bad."

Jeff smiled slightly while hobbling along, "Maybe... I'll admit, I may have pegged you wrong Erin. You're a better Ranger than I thought you'd be, and a pretty tough soldier too... for a girl."

"Given the circumstances, I'll take that as a compliment sir. Thank you," Erin replied as she helped him along.

She checked her watch and noticed that they were getting close to the escape point and the gunship would be arriving soon. As her heart began to beat faster in excitement, it quickly turned to fear as she heard other rustling coming from nearby. She and Jeff got down and went silent, listening to the jungle around them. Long moments of silence passed before a few Xeno blaster bolts rang out and whizzed by overhead.

"Damn! It must be a patrol! We were so close!" Jeff growled while Erin morphed and grabbed hold of her comrade.

"Come on! We're going to make a break for it!"

Erin hoisted him up and the two took off as fast as possible for the meeting point hoping that their allies would show up on time. As they neared the edge of the clearing ahead, Erin tried boosting the signal beacon from her morpher to let their position be known by any Terran forces nearby. They kept running while enemy shots whistled behind them and took chunks out of trees around them. Upon reaching the clearing, the familiar sounds of a Marauder gunship could be heard approaching while the enemy clone soldiers kept up their pursuit and relentlessly kept up their fire.

The buzzing sounds of the Marauder gunship grew louder as Erin and Jeff scrambled as fast as they could into the wide forest clearing. As she supported her hobbling ally with one arm, Erin used her other to boost the signal beacon on her morpher to the highest setting hoping it would do some good. By the looks of it, they had very little time to spare as enemy clone troopers began to converge in from several sides of the rainforests. They were encircling their prey and closing the noose in tight to trap them. A few of them snapped off wild shots at the humans and the blaster bolts flew wide or landed nearby while Erin and Jeff made a desperate run for it.

As they continued to run as fast as they could, they were suddenly knocked off balance as a Xeno trooper fired off a short ranger mortar which went off nearby. The force of the explosion kicked up a cloud of vegetation and knocked both humans sideways into the dirt. They lay for several moments, stunned and disoriented and Erin could feel her ears ringing. As she shook away the stars from her vision, she saw Jeff stagger to his knees and recover his rifle. He looked to her with a deadly serious expression and nodded, "Keep transmitting that beacon! I'll try to keep their heads down!"

"But Jeff..."

He waved her off forcefully, "That's an order Lieutenant! Do it!"

The Yellow Ranger reached for her morpher and boosted the signal as far as it could go while Jeff limped to his feet and opened up with his energy rifle set to full auto. The sheer sudden bravado of the STAR in the face of an overwhelming enemy caught the aliens off guard and several of them were mowed down in the hail of fire. The others dove for cover and let the enemy have a moment to expose himself. Jeff continued to fire and began shouting defiant invective back at the Eidolon troopers who encircled them. When he paused a moment to reload the power cell of his rifle, the aliens popped their heads up only to be surprised at his speed and discipline in reloading causing a few more clones to be killed with shots directly to the head.

Erin watched in complete awe as the single STAR momentarily held off an entire company of clone soldiers with sheer ferocity and force of will. Before she could raise her own weapon and join in the fight, the trees around her swayed and she felt the air ripple. A loud buzzing filled the skies and a UNAF gunship cleared the treeline to help.

Several aliens began firing at the Marauder gunship while a few others began shooting desperately at Captain Austin. The adrenaline rush of joy and relief at the sight of gunship suddenly turned to horror as several bolts found their mark and hit Jeff. A few clipped him in the leg or shoulder while another struck him directly under the ribs.

Erin yelled in panic and dove to cover her comrade as he collapsed backwards into the grass and the gunship opened up with blistering fire on the aliens. Several rappel lines flew off the side of the gunship as a handful of STARs deployed to cover the ground and chase off the clones followed by Martin, Erik, and Jake.

The Red and Silver Rangers fired their weapons alongside the STARs while Erik scrambled over to where Erin was propping up her grievously wounded ally. The Yellow Ranger looked over the scorched blaster wounds and grabbed her fellow Ranger's sleeve staining it with blood, "Erik! Jeff's hit! You've got to save him! Hurry!"

Erik blinked in shock before pulling out his medkit and trying desperately to stabilize the wounds. By the sheer looks of it, it wasn't looking good. As Erik continued to work amid the sounds of weapons fire and blaster bolts cutting through the air, Jeff gasped a few times and reached a hand out to Erin. "Get out of here Lieutenant. Save yourself. The world is going to need its Yellow Ranger."

Erin clasped his hand and gave a squeeze, "Come on Captain, don't talk like that. We're going to get you to safety. You're going to go home and everything will be okay. We came this far."

The STAR shook his head with a tired smile. The color from his face was draining and he didn't even seem to take notice of Erik who was desperately tying to save him, "Erin... I didn't get a chance to properly say this before... but thank you for saving me. It was my turn to repay the favor, so that you could call for help... and that you could get home."

Meanwhile Erik gave a mild curse in German while he tore away at part of Austin's uniform and saw that this was looking almost hopeless.

"Erin... I've always admired you Rangers. Maybe I was even a little jealous that I wasn't skilled or talented enough to be one too. I thought the best thing I could do was to push you guys... to make you better the only way I knew how."

Erin kept her hand squeezing his and nodded, "It's okay. You don't have to apologize for anything now."

Jeff looked her in the eye, "Promise me. Promise you'll get stronger and end this war. Promise me the rest of my family will be kept safe."

Erin nodded with a distraught look, "I promise."

Jeff smiled and laid his head back before his muscles relaxed and went limp. Erik gasped in panic, "No, no, no... stay with us Captain..."

Martin's voice cut in sharply over the comms as the others kept up the ferocious firefight, "Let's get a move on people! The LZ's getting really hot!"

Erin let go of Captain Austin's hand as Erik scooped up the dead STAR and carried him to the gunship which touched down. Once they and the rest of their comrades jumped back in, the Marauder took back off into the skies and evacuated them to safety. In the hold of the gunship, the other STARs gathered around their dead leader in silence while Erin slumped back against a bulkhead and pulled off her helmet. She took several deep breaths and did her best to keep from crying before her three male teammates came down to sit beside her and offer their support. No one said anything because they didn't have to. There would be plenty of time for that later. For now at least, both the Nova Rangers and the STARs decided it was best to observe a respectful quiet for all involved.

* * *

The fighting in the Amazon lasted another week, and the invasion force was eventually crushed but by the time it ended, both the Rangers and STARs had been called away from the front line. Instead, they all congregated in the transporter room of Atlantis Base to be sent to Captain Austin's hometown in Texas for funeral services. They were joined by members of that particular STAR team and all of them had donned their dress uniforms. The mood was subdued and both teams waited together quietly. Here and there, they would exchange some hushed words while Erin half heartedly glanced over some notes. She had offered to be one of the people who would say a few words at the funeral, but she didn't look too ready to do so either.

As she fidgeted, Martin came over and put a comforting hand on her shoulder, "Hey Erin... are you going to be okay? You sure you want to go through with this?"

She took a breath and nodded, "Yes sir. This is something I need to do. After what happened out there... I figured I owed it to Captain Austin for making sure I got home safely."

She glanced at her notes in her hand, "You know... I keep looking over these papers and I keep thinking to myself that it isn't enough. What am I supposed to say to his family and his widow?"

Martin sighed, "You tell them the truth... that Jeff Austin did his duty and died as a hero to protect others... like yourself."

The younger Yellow Ranger fell silent and nodded reluctantly before looking up again, "Martin... do you know one of the things that makes me the most upset about all this? While I was out there with Captain Austin, I made an effort to reach out and become his friend... and to a degree, I think I did. I didn't want there to be any hostility between our squad and the STARs, and I thought maybe I could do something to foster some goodwill, just as we did with Taldyr and some of the clones he's turning against the enemy."

The Red Ranger put a comforting arm over her shoulder and gave her a little side hug while turning her around, "I don't think your efforts were in vain Lieutenant. Look."

She stopped and saw the other Nova Rangers talking quietly with the other STARs and in some cases shaking hands. It wasn't exactly a show of closeness between best friends, but it was one of mutual respect and sympathy for the loss. After all, when they boiled it all down, all of them were still on the same side. "It might not happen today or tomorrow even... but it's a start, and I think that's something to be thankful for."

Erin stopped and gave a faint smile as she nodded, "Yes sir. Thank you for that."

Martin gave her a pat on the back and let go as Lt. Reyes stepped forward, "Captain, the transporter is ready to beam over the first group. We're ready to go after you guys."

The Red Ranger looked to Erin a moment and decided to follow her example. He shook his head and gestured to the transit platform, "That's okay Lieutenant. Why do you lead the other STARs and go first. I think it's only proper... and Jeff would probably want to see you guys as the first one on his field too."

Reyes gave a small smile and nodded while giving a slow salute, "Thank you Captain. I appreciate the gesture. We'll see you guys at the services soon."

As the STARs took their place on the platform as it energized, Erin returned the salute, "Count on it."

* * *

 **A/N:**  
 **Stay tuned everyone. The long awaited Xeno Rebellion plot comes into play next with Erin continuing to lead the effort there. With a chaotic battle around the city of Tokyo and the citizens of Earth wary of new alien allies, can those two warring factions come to an accord against a common enemy? There's only one way to find out. See you guys then!**


	27. Big Trouble in Little Tokyo

**Mission 26: Part 1  
**

Some jazzy Sinatra style music played from the mp3 player in the apartment living room while Lucy Beckett stopped to admire her work. She hummed along to the music while she painted a watercolor landscape and enjoyed the afternoon sunlight and the fresh ocean air coming in from the open window of her deck. Her picture of a coastline in the Pacific Northwest was coming along nicely and she decided to take a short break. As much as she normally enjoyed working on science projects in her lab, she still enjoyed some quiet recreation time when she could get it. She didn't get a chance to paint often but it was always something that she found relaxing and it helped to put her normally active mind at ease.

As she tied her dirty blonde hair up into a messy ponytail, she checked to make sure she didn't get any paint on her casual jeans or the light white sleeveless turtleneck that she was wearing. While she washed off her paintbrushes, she heard the door chime and then walked over to open the door. To her surprise, she found Martin holding a grocery bag and wearing a grin.

In his best impression of Ricky Ricardo, he called, "Lucy! I'm home!"

She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, "Really Martin? Is that best you can do?"

"Hey, I thought it was kinda funny," he protested, "Can I come in Luce? Please?"

She nodded and let him inside as he continued, "I picked up some of the groceries you asked for while I was on my way here."

He set the bag down on a table. As he ambled into the living room, he admired the picture she was painting, "You've been kinda busy this week huh? No time for shopping?"

She shrugged, "Kinda. With that big international science expo coming up in Tokyo, I guess I've been a little preoccupied. I still have to finish packing for when we all leave tomorrow."

"Right, you mean Science Con?" Martin joked lightly, "The UN may have roped Caldwell into putting us on a security detail for the event, but I'm sure that won't stop you and Julian from going nuts and nerding out at the convention."

Lucy smiled, "Of course! Some the world's leading scientists are going to be there and showing off their innovations. I'm just glad I'm getting a chance to attend the events as a guest."

"What? You're not giving a keynote presentation?" Martin teased gently, "You're probably the smartest person I know."

"Trust me, there are tons of scientists much older and wiser than even me," she said. "Maybe I can give that presentation in a couple years… or when I build that warp drive engine."

"Forget the expo, I think you'd be getting Nobel prizes and swimming in research grants," the Red Ranger commented with a chuckle.

"By the way… what are you doing here?" Lucy asked as she put the groceries away, "I thought you were still going to doing some training drills with the team."

He shook his head, "No, training ended early today and I had the rest of the day free. I thought I might stop by and we could go out and grab some lunch. What do you say?"

"Oh... sure," she said in surprise, "Except I'm not entirely presentable right now. I was planning on staying in today."

"No one's going to care," he answered, "It's not like we're having uniform inspections here. It's just having some pub food around the corner."

"I guess you're right," she admitted as she grabbed her purse and slipped on some flats, "I suppose I should make an effort to try to get out a little more, right?"

"Actually, I figured it would be a good last chance to grab a good burger and fries before we travel again. After all, the Japanese can eat some pretty weird things over there," he explained while they headed out the door.

"Well if you're worried about weirdness, then you should fit right in over there," Lucy teased back. "What's the worst that can happen?"

* * *

Meanwhile on the Xeno mothership grounded on the moon, Warmaster Hellspont waited patiently as he inspected the viewscreen before him. He could see a small task force of ships he had ordered preparing for the mission he had assigned them. It wouldn't be long before they are their cargo would be underway. When the doors to the command deck slid open, the clone trooper named Taldyr entered and approached the cybernetically enhanced general before him. She stopped and bowed his head waiting for instructions, "I'm here Warmaster. You called for me?"

Hellspont nodded and continued to look at the small armada he had gathered, "The assault force is almost ready for launch. Have you gathered all the shock troops?"

Taldyr nodded, "Yes Warmaster. They're being shuttled over to the transport ships right now."

"Excellent," the general said as he paced the deck, "This will be the largest ground attack we've launched yet in this campaign. We're counting on you and your troops to surprise the Terrans and set up a beachhead for the rest of our fleet to attack later. We've tested the humans' defense zones and I think we've found a good target for you... this island they call Japan. There is a dense civilian population there and the island nation is largely demilitarized."

Taldyr remained quiet for a moment doing mental calculations. What he hadn't told the Warmaster was that a little over half the troops that were being deployed were ones preparing to defect over to the side of Earth. They had needed an excuse to gather their numbers into a sizeable force, but the problem remained of having to deal with the Loyalist clones who would still fight for the Xenos upon landing. Assuming Taldyr could contact his Ranger friends and get their help, it was looking like it was still going to be an evenly split pitched battle to escape the Warmaster's grasp. The leader of the clone troops also expected the rank and file Earth soldiers would probably not be very welcoming or trusting, but they would just have to cross that bridge when they got there.

Taldyr furrowed his brow, "Warmaster, if we're launching an attack of this scale followed up by an even larger one in the near future, does that mean the mothership is almost fully repaired? That it will be ready to fly to Earth?"

Hellspont glanced over, "The repairs are nearing completion, yes. But we are going to attack because the Overlord within this vessel grows impatient. We've been grounded here for over a year and have had little to show for it. Of all the other races we've ever come across, these humans have been especially troublesome and defiant."

"Yes sir," Taldyr answered keeping his head down and trying to look submissive.

"Taldyr, go now and finish with the preparations. I want the troop transports underway within twenty four hours. Is that understood?"

"Perfectly. It will be done," Taldyr nodded as he gave a salute and marched quickly out of the room. He was going to be very busy. He had to contact the Rangers and ready his own army of rebel Xenos. It was an exciting, exhilarating, and fearful feeling all at the same time. The chance at winning their freedom was finally here, a little sooner than expected, but he wasn't planning to squandering that opportunity for anything in the world.

* * *

After beaming into downtown Tokyo the next morning, the six Nova Rangers along with Lucy and Julian made their way to the site of the World Science Expo and the neighboring accommodations. Along the way, they marveled at the sprawling urban metropolis, the lights, the sounds, and the throngs of people going to and fro about their daily business.

As they walked down the streets and followed the GPS to their hotel, Julian radioed back to base with a look of mild concern, "Are you sure you're going to be okay holding the fort for me while I'm away?"

On the other end, Staff Sergeant Braun gave a sigh, "Don't worry Julian. We'll have someone here manning the transporter and keeping the lab ready at a moments notice. Just kick back and enjoy the trip."

"Sgt. Braun is right," Ella said cheerfully while giving the tech a gentle poke in the shoulder, "I'm actually more surprised we finally got Dr. Beckett out of the lab this time."

Lucy gave a patient sigh at the gentle ribbing, "Considering what happened last time I went out on a field mission, it's probably best I stay in Atlantis unless it's an emergency."

"Or an international nerd convention," Jake chimed in playfully as he lit up a cigarette.

When they reached the hotel, Erin and Julian went to check in while the others waited nearby. It wasn't a large ritzy hotel by any means and it wasn't in some futuristic looking building either. Despite some of the old traditional art hanging on the wall and the lobby decor hearkening back to the feudal age, it was still a nice homey place. It looked to be a lodge used primarily by international business people and the occasional tourist too. When they reached the front desk, Erin switched off her universal translator and gave her boyfriend a confident wave, "Don't worry Julian. I've got this. I studied up on a little Japanese before coming here and I'm going to test it out."

Julian quietly rolled his eyes and stood patiently as Erin greeted the front desk receptionist with several sentences in formal if clunky Japanese. The young woman behind the desk glanced over the shoulder patch of Erin's military duty jacket and saw the colors of the Irish flag before she smiled politely, "I'd be happy to check you in Miss. If you'd be more comfortable speaking in English..."

"She would," Julian interrupted as he stepped forward and nudged Erin aside.

Meanwhile across the lobby, Bharata eyed some samurai swords on the wall along with some artwork of feudal samurai warriors The Green Ranger admired the pieces and mused toward his friends, "They're beautiful, aren't they? It never ceases to amaze me how the Japanese put so much effort and attention to detail when they're doing their crafts, from art to swords, to calligraphy, and even their martial arts. I'd love to see more of it while we're here."

"That sounds all well and good mate, but I fancy I'll be content with just sampling some sake when we get off duty," Jake replied with a shrug.

"I'll be at the sushi bar if anyone needs me then," Erik chuckled to himself while giving a thoughtful look, "I got a pretty good sampling of noodles and seafood when we were in Italy. I admit I'm kinda curious to see the authentic Asian spin on it."

"Well in that case, I guess I'm going to have to come with you," Ella added hopefully, "Maybe I can pick up some cooking tips from the local chefs too."

The Blue Ranger turned the squad's commander, "How about you Captain? Would you care to join us tonight for a late meal out?"

Martin looked to Ella and saw her give him a pointed look before he picked up the hint. He laughed and waved them off, "Nah, that's okay Erik. You two go ahead and just give me a scouting report tomorrow morning."

At that moment, Erin and Julian returned to the team with dismayed looks. The Yellow Ranger held out several room keys in her hand, "We'll everyone, I've got some good news and some bad news. The good news is we're checked in. The bad news is, there's been a mixup with our sleeping arrangements. They don't have enough rooms or beds. We've got four rooms but the guy/girl ratio is a little off."

"I'm assuming Erin and Ella are rooming together, and the four male Rangers will take another two rooms," Julian said hesitantly, "That uhh... only leaves one more between Dr. Beckett and I."

Everyone exchanged an uncomfortable look before Martin cleared his throat, "All right. How about this? Julian you take my place and bunk with Erik. Luce, you and I can share a room."

Lucy blinked and almost felt like whipping her glasses off, "I'm sorry, what?"

The Red Ranger shrugged, "Oh come on Luce, it's not going to be a huge deal. We're all adults here. And besides, how long have we been friends? I think you know you can trust me the most here."

"Well... I guess so," she agreed. While she was a little shocked and uneasy about the idea, she was also a little excited about it too.

As they headed up the elevator, Ella elbowed Martin playfully, "You'd better behave yourself Captain. You already have a girlfriend you know."

"Thank you for the reminder Ella," he sighed, "I don't suppose you're going to be doing random room checks at odd hours too?"

The other male Rangers began snorting and quietly making crude jokes among each other before the Red Ranger gave a reproachful frown to his younger teammates, "Hey, that also means you clowns too. Shut up."

When they reached their floor and split up, Lucy opened the door to their room and was surprised to find a relatively small and simple layout. It was expected that the rooms would be a little smaller, but true to Japanese form, everything was simple and utilitarian but in an elegant way. Aside from a dresser, a desk, and chair was a single futon bed nearby the windows on a wooden frame. There was some minimalist decor, a few calligraphy scrolls along the wall, a lamp, and some bamboo plants to add some green to the room.

As he set down their bags, Martin cut her off and tried to dismiss her misgivings with a positive look, "I know what you're going to say and don't worry. You take the bed and I'll sleep on the floor. It'll be just like camping out on field training exercises."

"Are you sure?" she asked while feeling a little guilty.

"I insist," he said as he sat down in a chair, "Now... we should probably get organized here and get ready to head over to that expo. It's going to be starting up in a few hours, right?"

* * *

Meanwhile, the small task force of Xeno spaceships made their final approach on planet Earth. The troop transports and some large cargo ships neared their destination in a tight narrow formation while a small group of destroyers led the way as a shield escort. As they approached, the Terran space defenses reacted as expected. A handful of UNAF frigates appeared and moved into intercept courses while the orbital defense guns began to power up and fire searing beams of ionized plasma.

Unlike in the first major space battle of the campaign, the Xenos had opted to use smaller faster and more maneuverable ships to be harder targets for the guns. While several shots missed, a few others slammed into the incoming row of destroyers and rattled them with their intensity. The Xeno convoy plowed forward and picked up even more speed as they made a push to get into low orbit.

As the orbital guns fired again, the frontline of destroyers acting as a shield wall took another beating as their shields were peeled away and three of the warships erupted into a fiery explosion. The outer hull plating of several other ships were scorched and heavily damaged but the transports and container ships remained on course.

As the concentrated convoy broke through and entered Earth's atmosphere, Taldyr braced himself in his transport along with his other rebel soldiers. As soon as they were able, he planned to send a transmission to his Ranger friends down below and warn them of what was about to happen once they arrived and made planetfall.

* * *

Later that day, Erin Reilly walked the floors of the science expo and gave a mild yawn. She was patrolling with Bara and the two ambled on their pre-planned route. To her surprise, a lot of people had turned up for the event and seemed generally interested in seeing some of the new gadgets and technology which were being created and marketed on Inventor's Row. There were new home appliances, advanced medical instruments being demonstrated to pharmaceutical reps, an independent space exploration company talking about the logistics required for an interstellar trip.

While the gadgets were interesting in some ways, Erin and the other Rangers tended not to get too involved in the why's and hows of how something worked. The question of if it worked was all that really mattered to them. Usually the details behind the complex science fell to their support team of engineers like Lucy and Julian were affectionately referred to as the "eggheads" in passing. As they continued to walk the floors, Erin stretched idly, "You know Bara, I wonder if they've got anyone else from the military that we could talk to here. He might know of some neat weapons that we can check out so that we don't die of boredom."

"You could always brush up on your Japanese," the Green Ranger shrugged with a laugh, "Or maybe learn some kanji to help us? I know a lot of people are familiar with English here but I'll tell you. I had a hell of a time finding a bathroom earlier and when I did, I wasn't sure which was for men or women."

Erin sighed, "Well, if I was able to pick up an alien language, then how hard can this be, right?"

No sooner did she say that was when she and Bharata heard their Nova Morphers chime. They both looked down and Erin answered hers first, "This is Reilly."

"Erin, good! I'm glad you're there," said General Caldwell on the other end of the line, "We've got some big problems headed your way."

"Is it another Xeno attack?" Bharata asked curiously.

"Try invasion force," Caldwell answered grimly. A convoy of enemy troop transports and some smaller warships breached the orbital defenses not long ago. We're predicting they're en route towards your location in Japan."

"What? Are you serious?" the Yellow Ranger exclaimed in shock, "Do the others know?"

"I've notified the other Rangers," Caldwell explained quickly, "But I needed to speak to you separately. We've just received a transmission from one of the Xeno troop carriers. There's someone on it who wants to speak with you."

"What? Who?" Erin asked in confusion.

Caldwell answered gravely, "Your friend Taldyr is back and it looks like he's asking for your help."


	28. Insurrection

**Mission 26: Part 2  
**

Erin stared dumbly at her morpher before she was patched through to the source of the transmission. She hesitantly answer, "This is Erin... Tal, is that you?"

On the deck of the troop transport ship, Taldyr broke out into a relieved smile when he got a response, "Erin Reilly, it's good to hear your voice again. I needed to speak with you. You and your Ranger friends are in danger."

"General Caldwell told me that a large invasion force is headed directly for Tokyo City," Erin replied grimly, "What's going on?"

The clone looked to his fellow rebels in the ship as they followed behind the rest of the convoy, "The Xenos mean to establish a foothold in Japan because the defenses there are not as robust. I have reason to believe the mothership is almost ready and a much larger force will be launched against Earth in the near future."

"Why now?" the Yellow Ranger gasped as a creeping dread gripped hold of her.

Taldyr answered, "The Warmaster is being pressured by the Overlord to press an attack. I feel he might be growing desperate for results. Right now, a small fleet is carrying loads of us clone soldiers and armor vehicles to launch this attack."

Erin blinked again, "Well... how are we going to stop it? It's going to take time to scramble our forces and launch a counterattack."

The clone nodded grimly, "I know. That's why I'm offering to help. I've gathered as many of my brothers and sisters who want to rebel and they're on these transports. We make up about half the invaders and we're ready to make our move but we're going to need your help."

"My help?" Erin exclaimed, "What can I do?"

"I will need you to help us win the trust of your fellow humans just as you helped your Ranger friends learn to trust me. We know your people might be afraid of us right now, but we have a common enemy and we're willing to fight beside you to secure our freedom."

The Yellow and Green Rangers stared at each other in shock before Erin took a breath and nodded, "All right. I'll do my best over here. My team is already in Tokyo and we'll be ready for a fight. I'll need you to give us a way to distinguish the friendlies from the hostiles and get ready to work with us."

"Done," Taldyr replied as he prepared to cut off his radio link, "Good luck Lieutenant. I'll be glad to see you Rangers again soon."

"Likewise," she said as the transmission ended. She looked to Bharata and nodded, "Let's radio the others. We've got an invasion to stop."

* * *

Some time later, the skies over Tokyo City grew ominous as a small cloud of Xeno warships and transports descended from the clouds and menaced the capital of Japan. Several flights of JDF, US, and UNAF fighter planes scrambled while civilians began to run for shelters at the sounds of the civil warning sirens. While the International Science Expo was put on hold, Lucy and Julian took shelter underground with several other international visitors. On the chaotic streets, the Nova Rangers made their way to the great Shibuya Crossing to hold that ground. Despite its reputation for being one of the busiest and most crowded intersections in the world, it was now thinning out as cars were left empty and local shops shut their doors.

Martin kept a close watch on the skies and asked, "General, what's going on up there?"

Caldwell answered the Rangers, "The enemy convoy will make planetfall in minutes. Taldyr and his allies will try to surprise the Loyalist clones from behind and I've directed the local air forces to only target specific craft. Be advised, once the ground battle begins, it may be difficult distinguishing friend from foe. Use your best judgement."

"Understood sir," the Red Ranger replied as a wing of UNAF fighters roared by overhead to intercept the invading ships. As the first alien transports angled low and began dropping pods and landing shuttles, Martin nodded to his team. "All right gang, let's get to work."

" _Energize_!"

The six Nova Rangers morphed on the streets and drew their weapons as the first enemy clones landed on the ground and poured out to terrorize the residents of Tokyo. As the Rangers sprung into action, the UNAF fighter planes began to unload on the ships with beacons marked hostile while the allied one holding the rebels began to fire on the Xeno ships and drop their own groups. The skies lit up over the city as utter chaos broke out while a similar situation began to take place down below on the city streets. Loyalist clones turned in surprise when the rebels led by Taldyr began to disobey the original plan and fire on their own comrades.

Even more unusual, the rebel male and female clones fought together in mixed units whereas the aliens loyal to the Warmaster maintained their segregated groupings. The entire district the Rangers were in devolved into a storm of blaster bolts, smoke and fire, shattered glass, and clouds of ruined concrete. Jake ducked his head and fired a sniper shot from his Fusion Striker picking off an enemy soldier from a rooftop of a low building, "I don't know about you guys, but it's getting a little hairy down here!"

"I think that's the understatement of the year!" Ella called as she tumbled through some enemy fire and used both her personal whipcord and her blaster to take out several hostile clones with a spinning attack.

Across the wide open intersection, Erin fended off several enemy clone with her plasma blade and morpher shield while Erik covered her and fired a warhead from his panzerfaust mace. The bomb hit a large concrete barrier that some enemies were using for cover and blew them up along with shattering half the glass windows on the block from the concussive force. Nearby, Martin and Bharata took cover behind a ruined truck and waited for some slackening of the fire. The Red Ranger loaded a charger into his Nova Magnum and gave a nod to his comrade who readied his Disruptor Staff, "Okay Bara, I've got you covered."

Martin turned and fired a powerful spiral volley of the magnum's finisher bolts while Bharata momentarily went into stealth and rushed from cover for a follow up strike. As the Xeno troops ducked their head and rode out the force of the spiral volley, the Green Ranger leapt over their cover and materialized out of thin air to strike them all down with swift efficient blows from his staff weapon. Despite the Rangers' ferocious stand, they were holding their ground from the onslaught of alien clones but just barely.

As the Rangers regrouped, Erin put away her blade and called out her Sonic Cannon to prepare for another wave. She gave a tired look to her teammates, "You think those clones got the hint yet? This real estate is not for sale?"

"Save your breath," Erik reminded her as he fitted another warhead on his mace, "As long as the air battle is still going, we shouldn't expect the ground one to end yet."

Ella gave an alarmed wave and pointed toward one road feeding into the wide multi branched intersection they were standing in, "Hey! Heads up everyone! There's more coming!"

The Rangers turned their attention to another wave of enemies who were charging forward from the smoke to try and storm the Rangers' ground but to everyone's surprise, weapons fire was heard and the sidestreets lit up. The attacking hostiles were caught off guard from the flank and all gunned down before a new crowd of clone troopers made their approach on the ruins of the intersection. The Nova Rangers squinted through the smoke and saw a mixed company of male and female clones approach but their outlines did not appear to be lit up in red on the visor scanners of the Rangers. The humans waited tensely as the leader of the clones approached slowly and raised his hands in a calming gesture. He slowly reached up and removed his helmet and graced them with a smile through a grimy sweaty face.

"Hello Rangers. It's good to see you again."

Erin immediately recognized the distinct features of their ally and broke out into a smile, "Taldyr! Is that really you?"

The clone nodded followed by his own personal company of allies, "Yes. It's good to fight again, but this time on the same side."

He was greeted by a hug from Erin and Ella but stood in confusion, not quite knowing how to respond to the human gesture of friendly affection. Erik simply laughed and nodded his head, "I never actually thought I'd say this, but am I damn glad to see you guys and not have to fight you."

"The feeling is mutual Erik Doberman," Taldyr nodded politely as he offered a hand to Martin. "Captain Sterling? Perhaps we could be of assistance here?"

Martin smiled and shook the clone's hand, "Thank you Taldyr. You're welcome to join our ranks."

As the Rangers and their new allies took a moment to catch their breath and lower their guards, Bharata looked up into the skies and gasped in dread as he saw some of the enemy carrier ships open large hatches from the underside. From the bottoms of the large transports he saw a pair of giant mechanized titans be dropped across the city and close to the waterways feeding into Tokyo. "Uh guys... I think we have a little big problem over here."

The Rangers turned in dread to see the colossal menacing visages of the battle titans before they received another call from Atlantis Base. Caldwell's voice sounded over the radio, "Rangers, we've received reports that a second wave of ground forces are being concentrated in the Shinjuku ward. It looks like there's some sort of force commander leading the way there... possibly another Omega Trooper."

The team's blood ran cold when they stopped and realized that the ward of Shinjuku was where the Science Expo was being held. If that was the case, then both Lucy and Julian were in danger except there was another looming threat approaching... quite literally.

Martin paused and radioed back grateful that no one could see the conflicted look on his face behind his visor, "Acknowledged. General, we've linked up with Taldyr and some of his rebels here in Shibuya, but we have visuals on two titans that were just dropped a few miles from here. Requesting instructions."

Caldwell paused and grimaced in similar discomfort as he felt the same torn feelings in trying to make an objective command decision. He looked to the face of Sergeant Braun who had filled in for Lucy in Ops and he gave a grim nod, "Sergeant, please begin the transport sequence for the Nova Mechazord."

"Yes sir. Mechazord sequence has been initiated," she replied dutifully as she began entering the key commands and protocols at her workstation.

"Captain, your priority will be to take out those titans," Caldwell said, "If left unchecked, they're going to cause much more death and destruction when they reach the heart of the urban areas."

Martin nodded, "Understood General, but Lucy..."

"She'll be okay," Caldwell said trying to calm the concerns of all the Rangers present, "You all know that she and Julian are brave and resourceful. I have a feeling they'll be able to hold out until help arrives."

The Red Ranger sucked in a breath to calm his nerves, "Yes sir. Sterling out."

As the Rangers turned toward the titans and waited for their zords to arrive, Taldyr cleared his throat and fixed them with a steady look, "Everyone, don't worry. Your general is right about those titans, but I'll gather my other friends here and we'll try to help your friends on the ground. At the very least, we can slow down that Omega Trooper or pin down his escorts."

Jake nodded and gave a grateful thumbs up, "We appreciate the gesture mate. Good luck out there, eh? Cheers!"

Erin stopped Taldyr and caught his arm before the rebel clones turned to depart, "Taldyr... please try to keep Julian safe out there. He means a lot to me."

The clone nodded with a serene smile and hefted his blaster staff, "Yes, I know. When we went to the moon to save you from the effects of the Conduit helmet, he confronted me directly and threatened to hurt me. I imagine he loves you very much too."

Erin stopped in surprise and let go of his arm, "I... yes... thank you Taldyr."

"Of course. We are friends and comrades in arms now," Taldyr smiled as he put his helmet on and waved his own company to their next destination in the city.

Ella called over to her friend, "Erin! Hey, are you with us?"

The Yellow Ranger turned to see her fellow female teammate wave her along to the transport point of the zords. She focused again and gave a nod as she took off down the ruined street,

"Yeah, let's do this."

* * *

Meanwhile, a fierce battle raged across town between the aliens and some mixed groups of local police in SWAT gear alongside some soldiers of the Japanese Defense Forces. Until the regular UNAF infantry could arrive and help, the local protectors had to do what they could to slow down the aliens and protect the civilian centers. Unfortunately, they had nowhere near the same amount of firepower or training to be an effective resistance against the invaders.

As they huddled in the large underground basement of the Expo center, Lucy and Julian waited while some of the event officials planned a civilian evacuation using an underground pedway system which connected to the center. While they waited and let some of the other civilians be moved first, Lucy pulled out a small tablet she had taken with her and put on a small hands free earpiece communicator. She tried a few times to connect to Atlantis Base and gave a sigh of relief when she was finally able to get through. General Caldwell answered though his voice was a little distorted and muffled from the reduced signal strength. "Dr. Beckett! I'm glad you and Julian are safe. What's your status?"

"We're waiting to be evacuated through an underground pedway here," she said, "What about the Rangers?"

"They're doing battle with the invaders right now. The enemy carriers just dropped some titans so the Mechazord is on the way," Caldwell explained.

Julian gasped, "Did you say titans, plural? the Xenos aren't screwing around this time, are they?"

"No," Caldwell agreed, "But I'm going to need you two to get to safety. There are more enemy forces in your area and they're being led by an Omega Trooper."

Lucy nodded, "Will do General. Is there any way you can give us a way to monitor the battle from here?"

She was so used to being the Rangers' eyes and ears on the battlefield that she was unconsciously slipping into her role at the base's Ops. If she wasn't monitoring the battle or coordinating tactics with the team, she felt useless and worst of all, fearful that she couldn't do anything to try and control the situation or keep her friends safe. Caldwell answered over the comm, "We'll direct a signal feed your way. You may be able to stream the battle on a device if you have a phone or tablet."

"On it," Lucy nodded as she connected her tablet to pick up video feeds of the battle raging above. She and Julian looked curiously at the tablet screen as they saw two Xeno titans rise up from their drop points and slowly lumber in closer toward the heart of Tokyo. While they did, they stepped on cars, tore up the pavement, and smashed some lesser buildings with their arms, seemingly uncaring where they walked. Their single red cyclopean eyes glowed menacingly from their heads as they scanned their surroundings and shrugged off some harrying gunfire from a few UNAF fighters which strafed them.

As they continued to watch, several other trapped Japanese civilians looked over curiously to see what was going on through Lucy's screen. An elderly Japanese man's eyes went wide as he watched some images of the Rangers running into a wide plaza where the zords materialized. He pointed to the screen with growing excitement as he muttered to some of the other civilians, "Oohh, Uchu Sentai Novaranger!"

Julian raised a puzzled eyebrow as the elderly man continued to mutter before asking around, "What did that guy just say?"

One of the younger Japanese men who spoke English shrugged and laughed, "He's referring to your Ranger friends like a Super Sentai team... from those old kids shows about superheros? According to him, they're the Space Squadron Nova-Rangers."

"Hmm, not sure if that's catchy enough to stick," Lucy grimaced before turning back to the screen, "Let's just hope that this Sentai Squadron whatever will be able to save the day just like in the television shows too."

* * *

 **A/N:**  
 **Thanks for following along this far and stay tuned everyone. I'll try to wrap this plotline up in a double post within the next few days. A few quick announcements: I'm also going to be gearing up for the last quarter of this series and plan to hopefully finish it in the next couple months (time permitting of course).**

 **Apologies also to anyone who's waiting for an update to the series Advent Horizon. I promise I'll get back to that soon too. Lastly, big thank yous to everyone who has participated in the Nova story poll that I posted. I haven't neglected that and it will finally come into play in the next plot. The results have been fairly close and interesting so there's still a little time left if you feel so inclined to vote. Yay democracy!**


	29. Taldyr's Gambit

**Mission 26: Part 3  
**

A fierce air battle continued to rage over Tokyo while the Nova Rangers boarded their zords and combined them into the fully assembled Nova Mechazord. As their own titan rose into the sky and the battle systems came online, they scanned the battlefield to get a feel for the terrain they had to work with. Unfortunately, the streets looked narrow and there were a lot of buildings in the way. The goal would be to try and draw the enemy titans away from the more developed districts to reduce damage and possible civilian casualties.

Bharata nervously gripped the firing controls of his station and worked to line up some shots just in case, "Hey... you'd think the people of Tokyo would be used to all this by now, right? Alien attackers and giant robots slugging it out?"

Erik gave a grim smile and tried to keep everyone calm with some levity, "Oh sure... I'll bet all the people down below are all pointing going, Oh my God! Run! It's Godzilla!"

"Stay focused squad," Martin cut in, "We're getting double teamed so we've got to end this quick. If anyone's got a good suggestion, I'm all ears."

Erin glanced over and eyed her console, "Captain, we don't have time to tangle with two at once. Let's go all out on the first and figure out the rest when the odds are even."

"The lady doesn't waste any time. I like it," Jake agreed with a thumbs up, "Let's blow that first wanker to kingdom come."

The Red Ranger nodded and readied his own controls, "All right then, missile banks and gattling blasters online. Weapons locked, fire at will Rangers!"

The Nova Mechazord quickly armed its primary weapon systems and unloaded a devastating barrage of projectiles and missiles at the first titan who moved to attack. As the Nova Mechazord expended its ammunition, the first Xeno titan was shredded by the withering volley of fire. The hull of its main body almost resembled Swiss cheese with flames and holes ripped through as it collapsed face-first to the pavement below and ceased to move.

The other titan didn't waste time and quickly charged forward slamming into the Mechazord while driving it back. The two colossal warriors exchanged several fierce blows and began to grapple back and forth. As the Rangers wrenched their controls, they pulled the titan along away from the city center. With a little extra effort, they threw the titan down along a more open riverbank on the border of a less dense district. The Mechazord pressed its advantage and advanced but the titan reared up at the last moment and used its legs and arms to trip up the Rangers and pull the Mechazord to the ground too.

As the Rangers struggled to roll their zord back over to get up, the Xeno titan rose first and pulled a tall steel radio tower up from the ground. Before the Mechazord could get up, the titan drove the point of the tower down into its knee joint, pinning the Mechazord to the ground. As the zord tried to rise again, the titan stamped down on it with several fierce kicks causing more damage.

Inside the rumbling cockpit, the Nova Rangers braced themselves as dread began to creep into their hearts. They were pinned to the ground and getting pummeled. Ella glanced at a monitor and called out, "Captain, we've gotta do something! System damage levels are rising. We can't keep getting pummeled like this."

Martin nodded, "Damn! Erik, what's the state of the pinned amphibious zord?"

"Heavy damage sir. Drive systems are offline. It's not moving anytime soon," the Blue Ranger reported grimly.

Jake tapped the side of his helmet, "Guys, I know this might sound crazy but how about we divide and conquer? If the amphibious zord can't move, we've still got two more to fight with, right?"

The Mechazord shook again and a few panels blew out as the Rangers took another brutal blow. Martin nodded, "Okay Jake, we'll follow your lead. Prepare for disassembly."

Before the Xeno titan could stamp down again on the Mechazord it stopped in surprise as the zord quickly separated back into three vehicles. The upper torso folded back up into the Sky zord and began to hover while the Land tank zord which formed one of the legs rolled out and maneuvered free. As Jake drove the large tank behind the legs of the titan, he called over the comms, "Aright Captain, you ready to go back to middle school and pull the old table-top on this guy?"

Martin steered the Sky zord into position as Ella and Bharata fixed weapons on the enemy.

"I've never really liked playground bullies," he agreed, "Open fire!"

The Sky zord let loose a barrage of fire from its blaster cannons knocking the titan back slightly. With the position of the Land zord right behind its ankles, the titan couldn't keep its balance and fell over backwards with a thunderous crash. As it struggled to get up, the Sky zord dropped some magnetic grappling clamps down and locked up its hold of the Land zord tank. The Red Ranger fired the jets further and the Sky zord lifted the tank up into the air so that it could bring its primary cannon to bear directly on the head of the titan. Inside the tank, Erin and Erik manned the guns and gave a ready signal to Jake, "Locked and loaded."

The Silver Ranger grinned as the hovering tank aimed its fully charged cannon point blank at the titan's head, "Boom! Headshot!"

The cannon fired and a supercharged bolt of energy punched through the Xeno titan's head before completely obliterating it. The six Rangers gave a cheer and exchanged high fives with each other for the success of their unorthodox and improvised battle tactics. Down below, civilians in the nearby buildings and streets of the city all began to give relieved cheers and waves as they saw the two colossal alien bots reduced to smoldering ruins. Of course, the Rangers didn't have a lot of time to celebrate. Their other friends were still in danger on the other side of the city. They didn't have any moment to waste. As the Sky zord lowered down to pick up Erik, Erin, and Jake, the Blue Ranger radioed back to Atlantis Base, "This is Erik, the titans are down. I repeat, the titans have been neutralized. How are things on the other end?"

Caldwell answered directly from his own headset, "We may yet win this. The air forces are retaking the skies. UNAF infantry is on the way to help but your job now is to find Dr. Beckett and Julian. Bring them home safely."

"Understood General, we're on it!" he nodded as he and his two comrades climbed out of the tank and rode the grappling cables back up as they retracted. Once all six Rangers were aboard the Sky zord, its engines flared and they made a direct beeline flying low over the city toward their trapped allies.

* * *

Meanwhile, the Exposition Hall was in chaos as civilians fled for their lives amidst the ground assault of a fresh wave of Xeno foot soldiers. Leading the way was a cybernetically enhanced Omega Trooper calling himself Drago. He was a large humanoid reptilian or saurian type creature fitted with sleek powered armor and upgrades to its joints making it an imposing hulking warrior. The warrior held a large axe in one hand and a blaster cannon in the other. As he went down the street, he shot out chunks of nearby buildings and smashed his axe on the ground to cave in parts of the street and underground tunnels below. One such strike was so forceful it violently rocked the pedways and caused a cave-in before Lucy, Julian, and the remaining civilians could escape to safety. Seeing their escape route now cut off, Lucy led the small crowd of people up another stairwell which opened up into a nearby sidestreet. When they merged from underground and tried to look around for a safe avenue through the chaos, their hearts sank as they saw Eidolon clone soldiers everywhere wrecking havoc.

Once the civilians were all above ground, they huddled around Lucy who had taken charge and they watched in dread as several alien clone soldiers turned and closed in around them. Despite her fear, Lucy stood her ground and bravely tried to stare down the Eidolons until the large figure of Drago emerged from the enemy's rear ranks.

Drago snarled as he loomed over Lucy and eyed the young woman in contempt, "This city is ours now. You and your people are coming with us."

"We're not going anywhere," Lucy answered trying to muster up as much defiance in her voice as she could. She was getting a terrible flashback to when she had been abducted by the Xenos before.

Drago laughed and continued to speak in his deep raspy voice, "Who do you think will save you little girl? Your Terran army is nowhere to be seen and your precious Nova Rangers are fighting a hopeless battle against our titans. There's no way they can win."

"We're still not going to become your slaves or your sick lab experiments either," Lucy retorted.

Drago growled and reached out one of his large hands to try and grab Lucy by the neck but Julian stepped in and shoved it way to protect his mentor, "Hey! Back off scale face! Leave her alone!"

Drago gave another snort of contempt and swatted Julian aside with a forceful backhand slap. The young tech crashed to the pavement in a stunned heap as Drago loomed over him with his axe, "You worthless human! You have the nerve to try and lay a finger on me?"

Before Drago could bring his axe down, he was stopped as a Xeno staff blaster fired and an energy bolt struck the Omega Trooper in the shoulder. Drago recoiled a moment in surprise before he turned around and saw a crowd of rebel clone troopers approach. The distinct one in the lead with officer markings on his armor held his smoking weapon and kept it leveled, "I won't let you harm that man!"

Drago's lip curled into a sneer and he turned to address his foe, "Taldyr… so you're the one who's responsible for all this."

The leader of the rebel clones removed his helmet and advanced with a smile, "That's right. Half of my brothers and sisters here are ready to send a message to the Warmaster. We won't be the slaves of the Xeno Machina any longer."

"You would fight and kill your Loyalist brethren here to do it?" Drago called in a mocking challenge. Some of the other Eidolons standing around the saurian warrior hesitated.

"I'd rather not," Taldyr answered, "Their lives are just as valuable and full of potential too. But if that's what it takes to win our freedom, I'll do it... starting with destroying you."

Drago gripped his weapons as Lucy pulled Julian aside and tried to direct the civilians away from the Xeno vs Xeno violence which was about to erupt. "Kill the traitors."

Many of the clones hesitated while several others raised their weapons obediently. In a heartbeat, chaos broke out as clones started fighting and wrestling among each other having been seized by their own conflicted emotions. Drago looked around in shock as the situation devolved around him and his forces broke ranks to fight among each other. Before he could fully collect his wits, Taldyr charged forward to take on the force commander and he lashed out with his staff weapon.

Drago raised his guard and fended off the strikes before being pushed back by a few blaster shots from the clone. Though the shots did little damage to his armor, Drago hacked back and split the staff with his axe before turning his gun on Taldyr. The clone dodged under the blaster and shoved it aside with his shoulder before throwing his weight into the larger saurian fighter. He drove Drago back several meters and knocked the axe down before he was grabbed in the arm and hurled roughly to the turf. Taldyr rolled on the ground and recovered to his knees as Drago tried to aim his weapon.

The saurian smirked before turning his weapon instead on the civilians and aimed directly at Julian and Lucy. Taldyr gasped in fear as Drago made ready to fire his weapon and began to squeeze the trigger. The clone soldier leapt to his feet and made a running dive to shield them just as the bolt was fired. Lucy and Julian gasped while shutting their eyes but the shot never struck them. Taldyr gave a grunt as the shot clipped his back and was deflected wide. Despite surviving the glancing blaster shot, the badly wounded Taldyr collapsed face first to the pavement with a large smoking scorch mark radiating from the back of his armor plating.

"That was very stupid," Drago said while shaking his head in amusement, "Now it's time to finish the job."

Before he could raise his weapon again, the Nova Sky zord roared by overhead while being controlled remotely from Atlantis Base. The rear hold of the zord was open and six Power Rangers leapt from midair in their armored Supernova modes. Amid the sin's glare, the six clasped hands together forming a skydiving ring while they fired their booster jets to control their speed. They broke formation before landing safely on the ground and they drew their weapons quickly upon seeing the Omega Trooper. They could see Lucy and Julian cowering nearby with the other civilians while a wounded Taldyr lay on the ground struggling to drag himself to safety.

"Would you look at that? We still get to thrash a big ugly lizard after all," Erin growled as she tensed for a fight.

All around them, the other clones were locked in their own miniature civil war and too preoccupied to get involved with the Rangers and Omega Trooper. Bharata called on his Distruptor Staff and ignited the electrical tips while casting a quick look to the downed leader of the clone rebels, "You just made a big mistake there pal."

Drago slowly picked up his axe and hefted it, "Really? How's that?"

Martin flipped off the safety of his Nova Magnum, "That clone over there happens to be one of ours. Rangers?"

Jake immediately opened fire with his rifle weapon while the Blue, Green, and Pink Rangers darted forward to close into melee combat. Erin hurried to heft Taldyr off the ground while Martin directed the civilians back to safety inside the Expo center. The Yellow Ranger gave a nod as Taldyr turned his head weakly, "Erin? I kept my promise."

"Thank you Tal, now it's our turn. We're gonna get you out of here and get you help okay?"

Amid some of the blaster fire that was still going on between the warring clones, Martin fired his jet boosters and swept by Lucy and Julian scooping them both up. As he jetted to the front of the Expo hall and dropped them off to safety, Julian gave a thankful nod and quipped to Lucy, "If that counts as an American Airlines flight, then I say it's highly recommended."

"Come on," Lucy interrupted while pulling her aide along by the arm as they scrambled back into the building. Once Erin got Taldyr clear too, the Rangers regrouped to join the battle against the saurian Omega Trooper. Erik's warhead mace blocked a heavy axe blow from the Xeno while Bharata slammed away Drago's blaster cannon with his staff. As Bharata rolled clear, Ella tied the Xeno's legs together with her whip before jetting forward with her own booster rocket and slamming him back with an offensive shield bash.

"Nice move Ella!" Erik cheered as the saurian rolled back to his knees and roared, trying to recover.

"You'll pay for that!" the alien roared as he brought his blaster cannon to bear on the three Rangers. Before he could fire, Martin and Erin jetted in with flying leaps and unloaded their weapons first. Erin's sonic cannon dazed the Xeno and caused him to stagger sideways and lose his aim. As he discharged the weapon into the ground, Martin fired a red spiral volley which disarmed the Xeno and stun him before Jake made a follow up leap and slashed the commander away with his weapon set in blade mode now.

The Rangers regrouped and used the moment's pause to call in their Prism Cannon and take aim. The Red Ranger stepped aside to a support position, "Let's put this guy away. Erin, would you do the honors?"

"Yes sir!" she grinned as she took up the central firing position and locked on the target.

"Fire!"

She pulled the trigger and the highly focused beam of positronic energy punched through the torso of Drago before he collapsed to the pavement and his cybernetic body parts erupted into a fireball. As the flames on the street began to subside, everyone looked up to see the air battle was winding down. UNAF forces had reasserted control over Japanese airspace and several of the carrier ships had turned in retreat. On the ground, the surviving Loyalist clones saw the tide of battle shift against them and many stopped to drop their weapons in surrender to the rebels. As the Nova Rangers took a moment to gawk at the surreal sight of clones surrendering to one another, squads of UNAF soldiers beamed in and began to fan out all over the streets to secure the area.

Several of the Terran soldiers stopped and raised their rifles toward all the clones present. As the human soldiers shouted and caused even more confusion, Erin stepped forward and raised her arms. She put herself in between all the warring groups and shouted loudly herself, "Stop! Enough! Everyone hold your fire!"

As everyone stopped and hesitated for a moment, a UNAF squad sergeant called out while still keeping his rifle raised, "Ma'am, what's going on? What are all these Xenos doing here?"

Erin continued to hold out her hands in gestures of restraint to everyone present, "Hold your fire Sergeant! That's an order!"

She turned to all the other enlisted troopers and shouted, "Trust me on this one! Stand down troopers... all of you!"

Some of the rebel clones still gripped their weapons and remained tense as they stared face to face with the human defense forces, those who would otherwise be their mortal enemies. Erin gestured to the alien troops too, "Wait! Don't shoot! No one's going to get hurt. Please..."

The other Rangers watched as Erin tried to calm the tense standoff by herself before they spread out to support her. They holstered their own weapons and made diplomatic gestures to both sides, urging restraint and brokering a ceasefire. As Erin watched in amazement as both sides slowly let down their guards, she knew she was on to something truly amazing here and knew she had her work cut out for her moving forward.

* * *

 **A/N:**  
 **Before anyone asks, no. The Omega Trooper here has no relation to Dolph Lundgren or any other Soviet boxers who may have fought Rocky Balboa either. ;)**


	30. Those Left Behind

**Mission 26: Part 4  
**

Early afternoon sunlight streamed in through the windows of the hospital room which was guarded by a pair of armed UNAF security officers. On the bed, the clone soldier Taldyr lay recovering from his injury in battle. By the looks of it, he had taken a bad shot which would leave him down for a while but no permanent damage had been done and the outlook for a full recovery was very good. Although he was unhappy being laid up in bed, Taldyr was inwardly grateful he would be okay and credited it to his doing a good deed for the Rangers.

As he sat with his thoughts, he was surprised when he heard the doors open and saw his human friends enter the room. He glanced over and his eyes went wide as they were joined by Lucy, Julian, and General Caldwell too. The clone straightened up in bed and fell back to his training in trying to compose himself, "Rangers? General Caldwell? Everyone... I wasn't expecting to see you."

"At ease Taldyr, this is a social call," martin smiled gently as Ella placed some flowers on a nearby bedstand, "We wanted to come see how you were doing."

The clone nodded, "the doctors say I should make a full recovery in time. I... thank you for coming to help and for taking me here. It seems I'm in your debt."

Lucy shook her head and stepped forward, "No. We're the ones who should be thanking you for everything you've done. Without you leading this rebel movement against the Xenos, this invasion would have probably overrun Tokyo. Your contribution helped turn the tide in our favor here."

Julian stepped forward and chimed in too, "And Dr. Beckett and I owe you a personal debt of gratitude for protecting us. Thank you for shielding us from that blaster shot back there. That was really brave and selfless and... well, I guess I had pegged you wrong before. I want to apologize for being so hostile toward you in the past. Hopefully you forgive me for that."

He extended a hand in friendship and Taldyr smiled at the sight. He took the tech's hand and gave it a shake, "All is forgiven my friend."

As Julian stepped back, Erin clasped Julian's hand and spoke up, "Tal, we thought you might be happy to know that the enemy was driven off and the city is secure again. For the time being, the other rebels are being kept in a detention camp but are being treated well. I know they're on our side and we're grateful for the help but..."

"But the rest of your people and army don't fully trust them yet," Taldyr nodded in understanding while gesturing to the two armed guards outside. "I know. To be honest, we'd be more surprised if you didn't take those precautions. After all, it took a while for you to trust me too."

"I'm very sorry about all this," Caldwell agreed with an apologetic expression, "Erin and I will be taking the lead in making appeals to the military and the UN Council for trying to give your people refugee status here. Until then, you have my word I'll do what I can to make sure your fellow clones will be treated well."

Taldyr nodded, "Thank you General. My brothers and sisters have endured a great deal of suffering already. Until we can win the trust of your people and peacefully make a new life here then we'll just have to endure this too. If you are willing, we are ready to stand and fight alongside your armies and you have my word I'll try to help them integrate to the Terran way of life too."

"Speaking of, we thought we'd get you started with that give you a little gift too," Jake smiled as he walked over and removed something from a box. He presented Taldyr with a plain blue and gray duty jacket worn by the military personnel of Atlantis Base. On it was the clone's name and a few NCO stripes. "Since you're one of us now, we thought you should have one of these."

Taldyr gave a broad smile and took a minute to admire the jacket, "I don't know what to say... thank you."

Caldwell chuckled and folded his hands, "I know you're technically an officer in your own forces, but by our laws I can't grant you a formal commission in the UN military. The best I can do is make you an honorary Staff Sergeant."

"I appreciate it," Taldyr replied as he lay back in bed holding his new gift. He stopped and paused a moment before frowning, "There is one thing I worry about..."

Erik tilted his head curiously, "Oh?"

"We've led a great rebellion," Taldyr replied, "We've deprived the Xeno army of a great number of soldiers and we've dealt them a major defeat here. I fear the Warmaster and the Overlord will not be merciful when they strike next. The mothership is making preparations to fly again and I fear an even greater final attack is imminent."

"We'll cross that bridge when we get there," Ella said trying to calm his fear, "We've been dealt a good hand here so it's best we take some time to figure out our next move."

Caldwell nodded, "Ella is right Taldyr. Let us worry about that for now. You just worry about getting well again."

Bharata clapped his hands trying to cheer everyone up, "Well... if that's it, then we might as well make the best of our time here, right? We've still a day or two left so we might as well enjoy it, right?"

Erin nodded and hooked her arm around Julian's, "Since summer is ending soon, Julian and I were actually planning to go visit one of the local castles and see the cultural festival with it. Do you want to some Bara?"

"If there are going to be samurai, then I'm in," the Green Ranger cheered.

Erik cleared his throat and turned the Pink Ranger hesitantly, "Umm, Ella... I don't suppose you'd still be up for going on that restaurant tour, would you?"

" _Certo_!" (Of course!) she exclaimed happily in Italian, "I thought you'd never ask!"

Martin turned to Lucy and gave her a little nudge, "How about you Luce, you up for going out tonight?"

She smiled and shrugged, "I would... but I'm honestly kinda tired after all this. You can go ahead if you'd like."

Jake cut in and gave the Red Ranger an enthusiastic clap on the back, "Then it's settled! Come on Captain! You can come with me and we can sample all the wacky local nightlife."

"If by that, you mean keeping you from getting drunk and arrested, then sure. Why not?" he sighed as he joined the others in walking out the door.

As the Rangers left the room, Taldyr lay back and draped his new jacket over his chest while closing his eyes. He gave a peaceful smile and relaxed knowing that he was safe again among his new human friends. He was finally home.

* * *

Later that evening, Martin returned to the hotel room and gave a sleepy yawn. He rubbed his eyes and tried to decide whether he should be blaming himself for staying up so late, or for letting Jake talk him into drinking as much as they did while hitting the town.

As he opened the door he was surprised to find the lights still on and that Lucy was awake. She was sitting in bed reading while dressed in some short flannel night shorts and a white camisole. She stopped to put her book down and give him a curious look. He yawned and shrugged out of his duty jacket, tossing it into a nearby chair, "Hey. What are you still doing up? It's three in the morning."

"I could ask you the same thing," she said pointedly as she put her book away and removed her glasses.

"I was out with Jake and making sure he stayed out of trouble," he replied grabbing an extra pillow and blanket.

"I see," Lucy remarked in mild amusement, "I take it you gave up? I'm guessing he's nowhere near as sober as you?"

Martin snorted and flopped down on the floor, "When I left him, he was still in the karaoke bar surrounded by a bunch of adoring Japanese schoolgirls and belting out Queen's greatest hits. Were you actually waiting up for me tonight?"

"Oh... well..." Lucy answered sheepishly, "I was just a little concerned. It's my job to keep an eye on you guys, remember?"

"Ah, well it's a good thing that we're not an old married couple here," Martin joked lightly as he put his head on the pillow and closed his eyes, "I'd probably be in the doghouse for coming in late like this, huh?"

Lucy rolled her eyes gently and watched him lying on the floor. After a long pause, she took a deep breath and cleared her throat, "Uh... Martin, why don't you share the bed tonight. You shouldn't have to sleep on the floor like some kind of dog."

"It's okay Luce. I don't mind. I don't want you to feel weird or uncomfortable or anything..."

"No. It's fine," she said, "You said it yourself... we're old friends, right? I trust you."

He sat up and blinked in confusion before hesitantly gathering his things and laying down on the other side of the bed. The Red Ranger took up a spot along the very edge of the bed to give her some extra room. He folded his hands together chastely and closed his eyes while she turned out the light and settled down. They lay in the dark for a short time before Lucy turned her head and spoke quietly, "Martin? Are you still awake?"

"Yeah... I'm here," he mumbled tiredly, most likely in a state of semi-consciousness from the effects of exhaustion and having been out drinking heavily with Jake.

"It's kinda weird, don't you think? Us being together here... like this?"

"Sorta... I guess."

Lucy turned and looked at the dark ceiling in silence for a long minute, "Martin... can I share a little secret with you?"

He yawned again drifting even deeper into the fog of sleep, "Mmm-hmm..."

"Do you remember when we first met several years ago? When I was visiting my Dad at work and he introduced me to the Alpha Rangers? I didn't know what to make of you at first... but something I never told you was that I thought you were kinda handsome."

"Mmm, that's nice... I always thought you were cute too," Martin mumbled absently.

"I know..." Lucy said as she rolled on her side and looked at him, "I've been thinking about it a lot since you told me how you felt last year... and I've been regretting having turned you away ever since. I wasn't lying when I said I didn't want us to get distracted from our mission, but the truth is I was scared. I was scared of changing something good and safe that we had. I didn't want to screw it up either because I know I would probably be the one to wreck it. I know I'm not always the easiest person to deal with. I'm not good with people and I put up a lot of walls but you already know that and it's never stopped us from being friends. You've always liked me and accepted me just the way I was and I'm grateful for it."

Martin's breathing grew a little more relaxed and steady as he lay half asleep and made a soft murmur that might have been a grunt or an acknowledgment of what she said. It was hard to tell. Lucy sighed, "I wanted to tell you that I'm sorry I was an idiot and if I had another chance to do things over, I would. I know you and Chrissy have a great thing going right now and I don't want to stand in the way. I'm sure she's a nice girl and all... but there's still a part of me that can't help but hate her a little bit too. Makes me sound like some neurotic jealous girlfriend, doesn't it?"

"Mmmm," he mumbled in reply before snoring through his nose momentarily.

Lucy smiled gently and shook her head as she scooted over to rest beside him innocently, "I guess since we're here, like this... I just wanted to tell you that despite everything that's happened in the past and what's going on with this whole war we're fighting right now... I wanted to tell you that I love you."

She fell silent and listened to him breathe quietly for a minute before nodding resolutely to herself. Maybe it was best that he was asleep. She said what she wanted to say and she was satisfied with that admission. As she rolled back over with her back against his shoulder, she was surprised when she heard him mumble absently in his sleep, "I love you too Luce."

Whether it was said unconsciously or not, she smiled as she closed her eyes and drifted off into a peaceful sleep of her own.


	31. The Legend of Drunken Masters

**Mission Log Supplemental 04  
**

The sounds of late summer locusts greeted Martin and Jake as they made their way from Shinjuku Station into the busy district of Kabukicho. With autumn fast approaching, the night air was mild and the atmosphere of the city was relatively more subdued after the recent Xeno attacks in Tokyo. Some districts had been hit hard while others were mostly spared of any damage and destruction. For now, the only thing that the local people could do was to try and carry on by continuing with their daily routines and reestablishing a sense of normalcy.

After having split up from their other teammates for the evening, Martin Sterling and Jake Massey went on their way to take a little down time and explore the city that they had just defended. As the two friends walked down the narrow colorfully lit streets, Jake gave a hopeful smile, "Well Captain, it's nice to see that this place is still alive and open for business. I was told Kabukicho could be an interesting place to see at night."

"Looks like there's a lot of entertainment venues around here," Martin remarked. Although there appeared to be many restaurants, bars, and knick knack shops, there appeared to be quite a few places which resembled seedier establishments like gambling halls and shops with a decidedly "adult" persuasion in mind for its clientele.

Jake waved it off with a breezy expression, "Well sure. Kabukicho is known as one of the biggest Red Light Districts in all of Asia."

"What?" the Red Ranger exclaimed as he turned to his comrade in surprise.

"Relax Martin. I just wanted to walk around and check the place out," Jake reassured him gesturing to all the other people walking out and about that night. "I wasn't planning on trying to score some illicit drugs or hire a hooker if that's what you're thinking."

"Oh… well, all right," Martin sighed as they continued to walk down the streets and browse the windows, "You do realize that as long as we're in uniform here we're still representing the UNAF and should conduct ourselves like officers."

"Technically that only really applies to you," Jake chuckled giving him a cajoling elbow to the side. He pointed out an upscale bar adjoined to a restaurant along the way, "Do you want to stop in and try some of the local sushi? We haven't had dinner and I'm pretty hungry. Aren't you?"

Martin shrugged, "Sure. Why not? Seems harmless enough."

* * *

A little while later, the two were seated at a table near the bar and passed the time waiting for their food while chatting and sharing a large bottle of saki. Unbeknownst to them, their teammates Erik and Ella were in the adjoining restaurant getting some special treatment from some of the sushi chefs. Seeing as how they were local heroes now for helping to save Tokyo, the Blue and Pink Rangers had been invited to observe their food being prepared in the kitchen after a modest request by Ella. The two cheered and clapped as the artful sushi chefs skillfully sliced up the seafood and swiftly turned it into colorful works of culinary art.

" _Molto bene_! That was incredible!" Ella clapped in delight as some of the main dishes were prepared. "You don't mind if I give that a try, do you?"

Erik hesitated before the restaurant owner set aside a spot on the table for Ella to practice cutting up some fish for _sashimi_. Erik grabbed their good plate and headed out the door into the main restaurant. He wanted to make sure that at least this sushi was going to be safe knowing Ella's track record for kitchen disasters. "I'll tell you what Ella, I'll put our food out and set up our table. I'll wait a few minutes for you, okay?"

The Pink Ranger gave a cheerful wave and grabbed a nearby fish along with a knife. What she didn't realize was the fish she grabbed wasn't a regular tuna but rather a _fugu_ pufferfish, known for being a potentially poisonous fish if not prepared correctly. She began to mimic the cutting technique of the sushi chefs earlier and cut several slices of the fish on a plate. She garnished it just like the other sushi and set it aside to admire her handiwork before going to throw away some of the leftover scraps in the garbage. While she was away, one of the kitchen runners mistakenly swooped by and grabbed the plate making his way out to the bar area where Jake and Martin sat.

When the server arrived, he found the two tipsy Rangers having an animated discussion over whether or not a samurai themed add-on to their suits would be stylish idea. Jake took another gulp of sake, "Come on Captain, samurai Rangers? That's the lamest idea ever!"

"Well I think it could work," the Red Ranger protested while pouring another round.

The server presented the plate and gave a small bow, "Gentlemen, in appreciation of your defense of the city, I present to you a special treat to go with your main meal. On the house."

The Red and Silver Rangers gave appreciative nods and admired the sushi before Jake dug in first. "Hey… this is pretty good. I wonder what kind of sushi it is. You don't think they gave us that killer pufferfish do you?"

"Nah. Don't be ridiculous Jake," Martin chuckled as she took up some chopsticks and prepared to try some too. Before he could sample the food, he stopped when he saw two beautiful young Japanese women sitting at the bar across the way looking at them. Their hair and makeup was all done up and they wore slim black form fitting cocktail dresses as if they were maybe going to some nice night club later. They smiled and giggled giving come hither gestures toward the two men and Martin blinked in surprise, "Uh Jake… are those two hot girls giving us the eye?"

"Don't kid yourself sir. They were obviously checking me out," Jake said eating a few more bites of sushi and getting up from the table, "Besides, you've already got a hot girlfriend so I'll take one for the team and keep both of these girls off you."

Martin rolled his eyes gently in mild sarcasm while he followed his friend over toward the girls by the bar, "Gee thanks Jake. You're the best wingman ever."

When they reached the girls, Jake dusted off his duty jacket and gave a charming smile, "Konnichiwa."

The girls giggled and pawed at the sleeves of their duty jackets while trying to speak in broken English, "You are military? English and American?"

The Silver Ranger nodded, "I'm Jake. This is my _taichou_ (captain/commander) Martin."

The girls introduced themselves as Chidori and Haruka. "You are nice looking men. You have girlfriends?"

Jake continued to flirt with the girls while Martin stood aside for a minute scratching his chin in thought while trying to focus through the saki he had been drinking. They were in a Red Light District and it was a bit unusual that they would be picking up such beautiful women this easily. How often did something like this ever happen anyway? Come to think of it, the girls did seem a bit too dressed up to even be in a place like this unless they were slumming it. Or was it possible they were "working girls?"

"Jake… do you have a minute?" he asked as he began to step in. He was halted when the Silver Ranger paused mid-speech and put a hand to his stomach. An angry churning sound was heard and Jake gagged a moment as the fugu that Ella had "prepared" finally began to strike back with a vengeance.

Before the Red Ranger could speak, Jake doubled over and hurled all over the shoes of the two girls they were speaking to. The women stared in horror before storming away in tears but not before they both slapped Martin in the face, only because he was the one standing nearby and was technically Jake's superior.

"Oh bugger… I just went and bollocksed everything up just now, didn't I?" Jake groaned as he regained his composure and rose from his hunched position.

Martin sighed and helped his comrade to stand upright before dropping some extra money at the table. "Don't worry about it. Let's just get out of here."

As the two embarrassed Rangers hurried out of the sushi bar apologizing profusely to everyone on the way, they were stopped on the sidewalk by several large intimidating men in dark suits. Many of them had traces of tattoos running down their necks and arms and they greeted the two Rangers with cold scowls. One of the men in suits stood off to the side with the two female escorts from the bar and they still looked visibly upset. He removed his sunglasses menacingly and spoke in a heavy Japanese accent. "You know who we are?"

Martin swallowed uneasily and glanced at the goons who closed in on him and Jake, "I'm going to go out on a limb and guess the Yakuza?"

The leader of the street gang gave a predatory smile, "Not bad Yankee. You should know we own these streets and we don't appreciate trouble... especially from _gaijin_ (foreigners) like you."

The Red Ranger eyed the thugs slowly and spoke, "Listen, we're really sorry. We didn't mean any trouble. If you let us go, we'll just leave quietly and..."

The Yakuza mobster shook his head in amusement, "Oh no. We're not letting you go just yet. Your friend the Englishman over there... he upset my girls really bad. I think he needs to learn a little bit of a lesson first. Then we'll let you go."

"Hold on, there's no need to do this..." Martin pleaded trying one last shot at diplomacy.

Unfortunately, everyone else didn't follow the script as a thug grabbed Jake by the collar from behind. The Silver Ranger spun around and slipped free before kicking the mobster right in the groin and dropping him. The situation devolved into a melee as another tried to grab Martin but the Red Ranger twisted the thug's arm and flung him sideways into another mobster threatening Jake.

"Let's go Massey!" Martin called as the two Rangers took off running down the street with a few of the remaining thugs in hot pursuit. By now the goons had brandished brass knuckles and metal batons eager to catch the trouble-making foreigners. The two Rangers pushed through the busy crowds and blindly ducked down several sidestreets trying to lose their pursuers. As they reached the edge of the Red Light District, they ducked into a slightly quieter street and took refuge in the lobby of what looked to be a small hostel.

Jake scanned the bulletin boards and pushed his companion toward an automated vending machine in the lobby, "Hey! This is one of those hourly hotels. Get a room! Quick! We'll hide out there!"

"What? Are you insane?"

"Hurry Captain! They're coming!" Jake insisted as a few mobsters came charging up the road looking for them.

Martin shoved some money into the machine, selected a random room and grabbed the key as it was dispensed. He and Jake escaped into the building and took temporary refuge from their pursuers as they went by to canvas the area. When they found their room down the hall, the two Rangers closed the door and were shocked to see the interior design of the place. It resembled some kind of gaudy honeymoon suite one would find in a seedy part of Las Vegas with neon lights, heart shaped pillows, and leopard print carpets. Martin blinked in shock, "What the hell kind of place is this?"

Jake caught his breath and looked around before laughing, "Oh um... if I had to guess, it's probably one of Japan's more interesting innovations, the Love Hotel. You book a room for a couple hours with your sweetheart and uh... do whatever you want. Though I have to say, you've got some interesting tastes here Captain."

Martin facepalmed and gave a groan, "Damn it Jake, this whole night's been a disaster. You just had to get us into trouble by eating bad sushi, hurling on those hookers, and kicking that thug in the nuts."

"Oh hell no. This is all your fault," Jake argued back, "If you didn't point those escorts out, we wouldn't have gotten into this mess in the first place!"

The two friends stared each other down before calming themselves and taking a breath. The Red Ranger sighed, "All right... we need to stop and figure out what to do so that we don't get turned into sashimi by the Japanese mob."

"You don't have a brilliant idea right now?" Jake asked as he flopped down on a couch and relaxed.

Martin sighed, "If I was more sober and thinking clearly right now, I might be able to come up with something."

Jake shrugged and poked around the room, "Well... in the mean time, we might as well make the most of our hour here. Check it out. There's beer in the mini fridge and some pink kimonos lying around in the closet."

Martin eyed the kimonos in the closet and that's when an idea struck him.

* * *

"Captain... this is stupid. I feel like a complete wanker right now," Jake complained as the two Rangers left the love hotel disguised in the pink kimonos and covering their faces with oriental paper fans.

"Quiet Jake, we don't have to keep these on very long. Just enough for us to get clear of this area," Martin hissed back as they made it to the street and looked around.

When they saw the coast was clear, they continued on their way to try and get clear of the district. What they weren't aware of was that across the street, some of their other Ranger friends were passing by and headed into the area. After spending a night out at a cultural event and seeing the garden grounds of an old shogun's castle, Bharata, Erin, and Julian walked into the entertainment district to try and find a place to catch a late dinner.

While Julian walked ahead of him chatting excitedly with Erin about wanting to see all the new computer tech in the Akihabara area tomorrow, Bharata idly scanned the crowds and took in the sights until he spotted an unusual one in the near distance. He stopped and paused as he thought he saw Martin and Jake leave a Love Hotel in drag. He blinked and rubbed his eyes wondering if he was imagining things when his attention was called back to his other teammates.

"Hey Bara, is everything okay? You coming or what?" Erin called.

The Green Ranger scratched his head and shrugged, "Uh... yeah. I must be seeing things. I could have sworn I just saw two of the ugliest drag queens go by across the street."

* * *

A little while later, Martin and Jake sat together in a colorful eclectic karaoke bar just outside of the district and they took a breather at the main counter. They had ditched their kimonos and disguises and sat in relief at having seemingly escaped detection from the Yakuza mobsters. The two Rangers clinked beer bottles in mutual celebration while a few Japanese teenage girls took their turn on the stage of the karaoke bar singing a cutesy theme song from some anime show on television.

While the girls sang and most of the other patrons focused their attention on the singers, Martin gave a relieved sigh, "Well Jake... I've gotta say, things were kinda touch and go for a while, but I think we got off okay in the end."

"I'm just glad we didn't run into anyone we knew," Jake agreed, "After everything we've been through, let's just be glad we got away with most of our dignity intact."

The Red Ranger nodded and took a sip of his drink, "Sergeant, we make a solemn vow right now. We never speak of the Love Hotel and the cross dressing ever again."

"Only one thing to do then," Jake laughed while lifting his beer, "We've gotta get back to the state we were in earlier and drink until we forget everything that happened."

Moments later, the doors of the karaoke bar burst open and the two Rangers turned to see the minor Yakuza boss storm in flanked by several of his goons. Following all the other mobsters was their enforcer, a large fat thug who looked more like a sumo wrestler.

"Oh bugger," Jake groaned as the Yakuza approached them and circled around like hungry sharks. The music began to die down and other karaoke bar patrons shied away in fear. The mob boss pointed at Jake and made an obscene gesture, "You! I'm going to have your heart on a plate Englishman."

The owner of the karaoke bar, a kindly older man stepped forward from behind the bar counter, "Get out of here! This isn't your turf and these are my paying customers. Leave them alone!"

The mob boss scowled at the owner and called his enforcer over, "Stay out of this old man. My issue is with these two _gaijin_."

Jake put down his beer bottle and waved off the bar owner, "It's okay sir. We'll handle this little..."

Before he could finish his sentence, the sumo enforcer grabbed Jake and Martin and tossed them across the room where they slid across the floor banging hard into one of the karaoke machines. Several patrons jumped back and the schoolgirls shrieked in fright as the Yakuza spread out and moved forward to attack. As Martin and Jake picked themselves up off the ground, they noticed the karaoke machine began to play music, "Don't Stop Me Now" by the group Queen.

"Jake. Get ready for a fight," Martin said as he tossed aside his duty jacket and took a fighting stance, "Kill the Queen, will you?"

"I beg your pardon?" Jake replied in outrage as he took his own fighting stance.

"The music, dummy. Are you gonna turn it off, or what?"

The Silver Ranger rolled up his sleeves and moved to attack, "Not on your life! Let's get em Captain!"

The karaoke bar patrons watched in slack jawed awe as the two somewhat inebriated Rangers took on the mobsters in hand to hand combat and made short work of them with their martial arts skills. The two wove through the gangsters and moved together in sync with each other and the music as Yakuza went smashing through tables and flying across the bar counter. The two Rangers somersaulted and rolled off each other's backs in tandem punching out the mobsters leaving only the large sumo enforcer left.

As the enforcer charged forward, Martin grabbed some bottles of booze from the bar counter and tossed one to Jake. "Think fast Massey!"

Jake caught the bottle and opened it. He stood off to the side and took a moment to drink while Martin dodged a few wide punches and sprayed the burly mobster in the face. As the blinded enforcer growled and wiped his eyes, Martin smashed both the bottles in his hand against the enforcer which only stunned him for a minute. The Red Ranger tossed the broken bottles aside and landed several quick punches trying to take down the sumo thug but it only seemed to pin him in place.

As the enforcer grabbed the Ranger by the collar and lifted him up trying to choke him, Jake walked up from behind and smashed his bottle over the head of the enforcer. It was just enough punishment to knock out the Yakuza mobster and he toppled to the ground dropping Martin down on top of him. "Blimey! Now that's what I call a strong drink! That really hit the spot, eh Captain?"

As the mobsters lay defeated in the ruined bar, the patrons all cheered and came over to congratulate the two foreigners for thrashing the hated gangsters. The two tired Rangers were hoisted up and showered with handshakes, pats on the back, and kisses on the cheeks. The grateful bar owner came over and shook both of their hands and bowed, "Thank you so much! We're in your debt for beating up those no good low lives. How can we ever repay you?"

The two friends exchanged a tired smile and nodded, "Keep the place open and make sure everyone has a good time tonight... including us."

The owner waved to his staff, "Everyone, get these nice young men some food and sake. As much as they want. It's on the house tonight!"

* * *

Late that night, Martin yawned tiredly as the party continued on even into the early hours of the morning. It was about two AM local and he had gotten as much food and drink as he could take. He and Jake had spent the last several hours talking with other local patrons and singing a few Western songs as well and Jake showed no signs of slowing down. The Silver Ranger was already up on the stage singing the first part to Bohemian Rhapsody while the small cheering section of Japanese schoolgirls continued to cheer him on. The Red Ranger got up from his seat and thanked the bar owner again before giving a wave to his teammate on stage.

Jake continued singing and didn't miss a beat while waving a goodbye for the night. As Martin stepped outside into the cool night air of the city outside, he noticed it had gotten quieter and he wondered if Lucy was still awake. He'd have to take a taxi back to the hotel and he hoped it would give him enough time to sober up a little so he didn't wake her. The fact that they were sharing a room was already a little weird but after everything that had happened over one bizarre evening in Tokyo, he was comforted by the fact that such a sleeping arrangement seemed decidedly normal by comparison.

* * *

 **A/N:**  
 **Credit for this comedic one-shot goes to ChibiDawn23 here and her putting the idea in my head. Ask and ye shall receive, lol. After all the serious drama recently, I figured why not do something a little light hearted and off-beat, right? Hopefully you all enjoyed the chapter because the story picks up again in the next installment.**

 **Trouble is brewing in Israel when Erik comes face to face with his father. With a new major Xeno threat unfolding, the stakes will only be raised higher and lives put in serious peril. Until then!**


	32. Long Distance Relationships

**Mission 27: Part 1  
**

The sounds of power tools echoed from across the wide hangars of Atlantis Base's North End as Erik Doberman sat reclining against the landing gear of a parked Pegasus fighter jet. While he did, he talked to his daughter Sarah through video chat on a portable tablet. Nearby, Martin and Julian were busy doing maintenance work on the underside of the fighter's fuselage where the secondary weapon controls were housed. The two were dressed in blue work jumpsuits and covered in oil and grime.

"It sounds like Grandma made you a good dinner tonight sweetheart. I wish I was there to have some schnitzel too," Erik smiled with a little sigh.

"I wish you were here too Papa," Sarah replied "There's this thing coming up at school and I hope you can come. It'll be so fun and we could..."

"Whoah, slow down kiddo. What is this thing you're talking about?"

Sarah stopped and thought a moment to remember then nodded, "It's a day where our parents can come in and talk about their cool jobs. You can tell everyone what it's like to be in the army and fight bad space aliens and..."

Erik raised a hand to slow her down again, "Hold on Sarah. You know I'd love to come, but I can't just take off whenever either. The last time I did that for your Christmas show, I got into trouble with my boss, remember?"

Sarah gave a deflated look, the disappointment clear on her face, "So you can't make it? You can't come?"

"I didn't say that dear. You know the military needs me to be ready whenever there's trouble. I'll try my best to come, okay?"

"Okay Papa. Are you going to bring your girlfriend too? The one who wears pink and likes pasta? I liked her. She was pretty."

Erik blinked in shock and gave a mild frown, "I'll talk to you later Sarah. You be a good girl now."

He ended the video chat and hoped no one was paying attention. Fortunately Martin and Julian were too preoccupied digging around under the fighter's belly. The Red Ranger reached a hand out blindly toward Erik while keeping his head buried in the manifold, "Hang on Julian. Don't let go of that tubing. Erik, can you hand me a ratchet wrench?"

Erik looked in confusion toward some of the tools laid out and paused, "Uh? Which one is that?"

"The one with the circular socket at the end. Hurry!" Martin called waving his hand.

Erik passed him the tool as Julian mumbled toward him from under the hatch, "Hey Erik, I thought all you Air Force guys know a thing or two about airplanes."

Erik crossed his arms, "A common misconception among civilians. Just because I'm in the Air Force too does not mean I know how to fly or fix a fighter jet."

He saw his two friends thrash a moment before responding with surprised exclamations and curse words. Martin and Julian climbed out from under the jet having been sprayed with oil. The Blue Ranger chuckled in amusement, "At the moment, it seems neither do you guys."

"Okay. I'm calling it quits for today," Julian sighed in disappointment while wiping himself off with a rag, "We can leave this for a work crew."

Soon enough Ella walked into the hangers and stopped when she saw her friends at work. "Hey guys... are you okay? How's it going?"

"Not so well right now. What's up Ella?" Martin mumbled unhappily while cleaning his hands.

The Pink Ranger nodded, "General Caldwell wants to see the team in the tower as soon as you're ready. You'll probably want to clean up first. You guys look like a complete mess."

"Thanks for the heads up. We'll be there shortly," Erik responded as he tapped his tablet and gave a nod.

As Ella made her way from the hangers, Erik drummed his fingers and let his mind wander back to what Sarah had said. He didn't want to disappoint her by not coming and he decided he'd try to figure out a way to see her. Who knows... maybe Ella would want to come with him too. After all, Sarah had suggested it, right?

* * *

Later that day, the Rangers gathered in the briefing room of the central Command Tower where General Marcus Caldwell stood presiding over a holographic map display. The gray haired base commander gave a nod as the team sat down at the table and turned their attention to him. "Rangers, I've called all of you in today for an unusual assignment."

He brought up a map of the Eastern Mediterranean and gestured to it, "I'm going to need your team to deploy out to the city of Haifa in Israel to aid in a resettlement project."

The Rangers all exchanged puzzled looks as Erin raised an eyebrow, "Uh... General? What sort of resettlement are you talking about? There have been several of those in Israel's history and most of them... well, they were political powder-kegs."

"I'm afraid this one will not be an exception either... just not what you might be thinking Lt. Reilly," Caldwell replied with a grimace, "This is about the Xeno clone soldiers who rebelled last month in the attack on Tokyo. There are roughly four whole brigades of clone troops who are going to be transported to a new home in Israel. They're currently being ferried there by the German Navy."

Bharata frowned in confusion, "General? I'm sorry, but I don't understand why they're going there of all places."

"The Israeli government has offered asylum to Taldyr and his people so that they can be resettled in a safe place," Caldwell explained, "The government said that the Israelis know a thing or two from history about being a wandering dispossessed people too. They wanted to offer refuge for the Xenos who are figuratively in the same boat."

Martin gave a pensive frown, "That's all well and good General, but isn't that going to cause some fear and suspicion among the people or neighboring countries there. I mean, the Middle East is a lot more peaceful these days, but old beliefs die hard."

Caldwell nodded, "Unfortunately you're right Captain. There are many people who are still uneasy about the resettlement project including the UN government and the UNAF. That's why the Nova Rangers are going to help ease some of those fears by being present. Once they're settled in, I imagine a large number of the clones will want to organize into new combat units to fight alongside our forces against the enemy. Until then, we need you to help keep the peace."

"Understood sir. You can count on us," the Red Ranger replied.

"Good, because there is another point of concern to address in Haifa," Caldwell continued, "You know that Dr. Beckett has helped to do some work on improving the weapons and defenses of our forces from the Adventi database that Erin recovered. One of the final components are being prepared for our newly rebuilt space fleet. Our new Polaris class cruisers have been equipped with ion beam weapons. All they need now are improvements to their force shield systems. The upgraded power matrixes are being completed in Haifa and will be sent out to the fleet shortly. Your job is to provide some extra security while that project is being finished."

Jake smiled, "That sounds great sir. Once our space fleet is up and running, we can take it to the enemy and give them a taste of their own medicine."

As the meeting finished up, all Erik could do was sit quietly and hope that this new development wouldn't conflict with his upcoming plans to return home to Sarah. For now, all he could do was pray that it would be a relatively short and easy assignment.

* * *

Upon beaming into the coastal city of Haifa in northern Israel, the Nova Rangers took stock of their surroundings and found themselves in the seaside municipality of Bat Galim. From their vantage point, they had a great view of the beaches and blue ocean to the west while the grassy Mount Carmel lay further inland to the east. In that particular location where the Rangers had been teleported to, they found that several naval ships were hovering in the deeper waters while transports pulled up to the shores. There was already a crowd of people made up of curious civilians, the press, UNAF troops standing by to act as security guards, and government officials.

The first group of the free clone soldiers were already being escorted through by the soldiers so that they could be greeted by the government leaders while the press corps snapped photos furiously. As part of the delegation came through, the Rangers saw Taldyr lead the way with some of his aides who helped the recovering warrior walk along the path. The clone stopped and smiled as he recognized his friends and shuffled over them, drawing the Rangers into some unwanted publicity too, "Rangers! There you are! I'm glad to see you here!"

"And we're glad you've been recovering too," Erin smiled as she shook his hand with a kind smile. Several more cameras went off and a few of the government officials came over to speak to them addressing Martin first.

While the Red and Yellow Rangers took the lead in speaking with the officials, Erik turned his attention to some of the other military servicemen present. He saw a few naval officers tagging along with German flag patches on their uniforms before his heart stopped. At the head of the naval delegation was his own father, Captain Erik Dobermann Sr.

Captain Dobermann was a tall man with short grayish silver hair. He wore a short trimmed beard of the same color and his facial features were seasoned and stern with a wolfish quality. He had tough determined looking eyes behind a pair of glasses and he looked the part of a tough old sea captain. The stern looking captain paused a moment when he caught sight of Erik and saw his son approach hesitantly.

Erik swallowed nervously and offered a salute, "Captain Dobermann... sir."

The father glanced at his son's insignia a moment before returning the salute, "At ease Captain. I... I wasn't expecting to see you, son."

"I know what you mean. It's been a while, hasn't it, Papa?" Erik replied before he abruptly stopped and kicked himself for letting out that little slip in decorum around other officers.

Senior nodded to his aides and dismissed them so that he and Erik could talk a moment, "You've been well? I see you made the rank of Captain. Congratulations."

"Yes sir. Thank you sir," Erik replied.

"And Sarah... how is your daughter?" he asked, "I know I haven't seen her since she was born and..."

"She'd love to see you, sir... and so would I," Erik interrupted hopefully, "I mean, I think it would mean a lot to her if you could take some time to visit. I know how difficult that is too, since we're both in the service but... it would mean a lot to me too. We've hardly communicated over the course of several years... aside from some odd letters and Christmas cards and..."

Senior grimaced and looked away slightly, "I'm not sure Erik... especially not right now. There's a lot going on here at the moment and we have work to do in Haifa."

"If you're going to be on shore leave for the next few days, couldn't we at least... I don't know, get dinner? Have a beer? Or take a walk?" Erik pleaded.

Senior looked around hesitantly to all the other people coming and going around them, "We'll see. This is neither the time or place to discuss these things right now. Don't you think?"

Erik deflated and gave a crestfallen nod, "Yeah... I mean, yes sir."

Senior nodded smartly to his son and continued on his way to mix in with the rest of the delegation, "Good. Maybe we'll sort this out later. Captain."

Erik saluted and sighed unhappily as he watched his father continue on without him. The Blue Ranger looked over to where his fellow teammates were busy with the crowd and decided to come help them. They'd have their hands full and right now, a little distraction would be a welcome blessing.

* * *

Later that day as early evening set in over Haifa, things began to quiet down over the new housing units set up just outside the city to the north. Many of the clones had begun settling in after being given some donated civilian clothes and old second hand furnishings. Sufficed to say, of the liberated Xenos were a bit perplexed as to what to make of all this, having been accustomed to sterile spartan living conditions and limited freedoms. Taldyr did the best he could to acclimate his brothers and sisters, though the men and women still self-segregated themselves in the housing units out of habit.

Although they had fought alongside each other in battle, being around each other in more relaxed conditions was still unusual and uncomfortable. When they were originally trained for battle, they were warned about fraternization and feared that things like attraction, personal feelings or even sex would be dangerous distractions. Even now, they marveled in both awe and shock at the way that their former Terran opponents allowed male and female soldiers to be around each other, or even be friends with one another. On that particular evening, the Nova Rangers spent time together in one of the large apartment units killing some idle time after dinner.

Because regular UN troops were posted around the Xeno refugee housing to keep out intruders and maintain the peace, there wasn't much for them to do. The six friends had dressed down into civilian clothes and sat around a table playing card games and drinking some tea that Jake had just prepared. The Silver Ranger stirred some milk into his cup and took a big sip savoring the flavor, "Ah... that's brilliant work. You've outdone yourself this time Jake Massey."

Erin sighed and rolled her eyes gently as she shuffled the deck and passed out a new hand of cards to everyone, "Oh come off it Jake. It's just a cup of tea."

He raised his eyebrows incredulously and wagged a finger at her, "How dare you Erin. You of all people should know... tea is serious business, especially to an Englishman. This is not just some cup of tea."

Martin and Bharata simply rolled their eyes as the other two began to lightly trade verbal jabs with each other while Erik half heartedly took up his cards. Ella glanced up from across the table and gave a concerned look, "Erik? Is everything okay? You've been really quiet this evening. You've hardly said a word tonight."

The Blue Ranger sighed, "Oh... sorry. I don't know. I've just had a lot on my mind. I ran into my father earlier at the shore and I think it caught him off guard."

The other Rangers all paused and turned to listen to Erik. Erin tried to give a hopeful smile, "Well hey! That's great! I remember you told me a little bit about him before. Are you going to see him more while he's here?"

Erik grimaced, "I don't know... I kinda get the impression he doesn't want to see me."

"But you want to see him?" Ella asked curiously.

Erik shrugged, "It's complicated, you know? He's my Papa, so yes. Of course I want to be around him... but he's always been kinda absent in my life too so I'm kinda pissed off at him too. There's so much I want to say, but I don't quite know how... or if I should."

He paused and gave a sigh, "I worry about being in the service sometimes, about being a Ranger with you guys... that I'd be no better than he was. I don't want Sarah to have hard feelings toward me because of what I'm doing because I know she misses me badly."

Bharata put a steadying hand on his friend's shoulder, "Come on Erik, that's not fair. You're a good father and we all know how much you love your daughter and want to be around her. You're not the same as your father and you know that."

"Bara's right Erik," Martin agreed with a nod, "If you want to take some time off tomorrow to see him, I think that should be okay. Things have been pretty quiet here."

Erik blinked in surprise, "Really? You mean that? I can take tomorrow off?"

The Red Ranger gave a small crooked smile while taking a sip of tea, "Don't make me regret it like last time, huh?"

Erik laughed gently, "Yes sir. Thank you sir."

Erin cleared her throat, "Okay, now that we've cleared all that up, can we please get back to the game? We're going to play Hearts next and..."

A knock at the door was heard and a UNAF trooper called out, "Captain Sterling? I have someone here who wants to see you, sir."

The Red Ranger handed his cards to Bharata and got up to answer the door. When he opened the door, he was shocked to see a familiar face standing outside waiting for him in the cool autumn air with the guard. Christina Lasky greeted him with a bright smile and a big hug. Martin stumbled back in surprise before returning the hug and waving off the saluting trooper to dismiss him. "Chrissy? I... what are you doing here?"

His girlfriend gave him a kiss and laughed, "How about you let me inside and I'll explain everything?"

After she was invited inside and greeted the rest of the Rangers, she sat down on the couch to fill them in about her recent news, "You know that I follow the reports about you guys in your travels around the globe. I heard about happened in Tokyo and the sort of refugee crisis that was going on with those Xenos who defected from the other side and needed a new home. When I heard they were coming here, I thought this would be a good opportunity to get involved and do something good. I've got some extended family on my Mom's side who live in Tel Aviv. They told us that some charity organizations in the country wanted to mobilize some humanitarian aid and I offered to help. I figured I could use a little bit of my star power to bring some attention and good will toward the project, especially since you guys had been involved in helping to free these Xenos."

"Wow! That's awesome, girl!" Ella cheered as she exchanged a high five with Chrissy. Martin's response was a little more guarded and subdued.

"Chris, I think it's wonderful you're doing all this and I know it'll do a lot of good, but are you sure it's a good idea to be here? I mean, not everyone likes the Xenos here and what if something happens?"

"Oh you're such a worrywart Martin," she sighed giving him a gentle elbow to the ribs as she sat beside him on the couch, "I'm here with the charity organization and we're going to just stay in the city where it's safe. When I heard you guys were also here today, I just wanted to take a night to come out and see you. After all, you are my boyfriend and I love you."

That last sentence caught him off guard and the Red Ranger glanced to everyone else who watched in amusement as he floundered about trying to respond to the sudden first use of the L-word.

"I... I love you too," he said giving her a quick kiss before turning to the rest of the team, "Okay. Show's over. Don't you guys have anything better to do right now?"

"Not really," Bharata laughed before Erin punched him in the arm and pulled a pair of aces from seemingly nowhere.

"Hey Chrissy, if you've got some free time tonight, you wanna join us for some tea and card games?"

* * *

Meanwhile, a large number of Xeno Machina warships made their way toward planet Earth. Although it wasn't the full might of their battle fleet, it still comprised a formidable threat. The task force which sped toward the planet was meant to act as a spearhead for the rest of the force which would eventually be brought to bear against their human enemies. At the bridge of one of the lead cruisers, Warmaster Hellspont watched and waited as the flotilla continued to approach their objective.

He clenched his fists in white hot rage of the events which had recently befallen their forces. He was tired of watching as Force Commanders and Omega Troopers were sent down and repeatedly destroyed by the Nova Rangers. He was frustrated by the stalemate and resistance of the human defenders of the planet. But he was most enraged by the sudden and treacherous rebellion of Taldyr and a significant amount of clone soldiers. They had turned a possible victory in Tokyo to the Xenos' most humiliating defeat yet.

He was tired of all of it and he would take matters into his own hands. If the intercepted intelligence on the Terrans was correct, he had a plan to strike at the UN forces. Deep inside, he hoped that it meant he would also get a chance to take some measure of vengeance on the Rangers or the traitorous clones who had crossed him for the last time. The Xenos were shifting toward a state of total war and the end was coming very soon. The Warmaster was determined to make sure that neither the Rangers or their pathetic allies could even hope to stop their inevitable destruction.


	33. Parting Ways

**Mission 27: Part 2  
**

The next day, Erik Dobermann Jr. made his way across town to one of the tourist centers of Haifa. He was joined by Ella who volunteered to come along for friendly support and they made their way through the lush terraced parks of Baha'i Gardens. Despite the somewhat cooler autumn air that was settling in to the region, colorful flowers and green palm trees still swayed in the breeze as they descended the stairs leading to their destination.

At the base of the gardens was a historic section of the city referred to as the German Colony. It sprawled out to the port of Haifa and boasted trendy boutiques, restaurants, and cafes. According to Erik, the place had been established by German Templers and remained a place which was especially welcoming to those of Germanic heritage. After a short stroll through the quarter, they finally came across a small garden park near some cafes where they found Erik's father. Captain Dobermann Sr. was sitting on a park bench drinking a coffee and reading a German newspaper. The Blue Ranger marched up to him and cleared his throat, "There you are Papa. I've been looking all over for you."

Senior looked up from his paper in surprise and blinked when he saw his son, "Captain? I didn't expect to see you here. Is this a military related issue you need to see me about?"

Erik shook his head, "No sir. Can we please drop the ranks and formalities right now? It's just us right here."

Senior glanced over toward Ella and the Pink Ranger stepped away into the background. She walked a short distance away to give them some space and look at some flowers in the meantime. Senior turned to his son and switched to speaking in German, "Erik, what is all this about? What are you doing here?"

"What does it look like? I'm here to see my father," Erik replied in his own native tongue too, "It's been years since we've been in the same theater and I want to talk."

"What do you want to talk about?"

The frustration in Erik's voice raised a notch, "Oh hell, I don't know... anything! The weather? Football scores? How about asking what's going in my life? How am I doing being a Nova Ranger? What are my friends like? Do I have a girlfriend? Is my commanding officer treating me well?"

"You're sounding angry son," Senior pointed out causing the Blue Ranger to stare back incredulously.

"Why shouldn't I be? I had asked yesterday if you wanted to spend some free time with me and you said you were busy. Now here you are sitting on a damn park bench drinking coffee and reading the newspaper!"

From where she was standing, Ella listened in and winced. Although she didn't understand what Erik and his father were saying, it was clear her teammate was agitated. He continued, "I almost get the impression you don't actually want to see me. Is that it? Do you hate me for some reason? Are you ashamed of me?"

Senior grimaced and looked away, "Erik... it's not that. I don't hate you, and I'm not ashamed of you either. It's complicated."

"Then simplify it! Tell me Papa, what is the problem?" Erik demanded angrily.

Senior frowned, "Don't raise your voice at me. You're not a little child anymore."

"But I'm still your child!" Erik fired back. A long silence fell between the two men as they stared each other down. After a long pause, Senior relented and looked away with a sigh.

"Not a day goes by when I can't help but wonder... what if I had just quit the military when you were born? Maybe things would've turned out better."

Erik shook his head in confusion, "I don't understand. What are you talking about?"

Senior looked to him, "You know your mother left me many years ago because she couldn't take the stresses of being a military spouse... to have me be away for months on end, among other things. When she left me, this was all I had. It was my escape... a way to put those issues out of sight and out of mind for long stretches of time, and I guess it just became a comfortable way of coping for me."

"It sounds incredibly selfish to me," Erik said petulantly.

"You're probably right," Senior admitted, "And I can't apologize enough to you for making you put up with that, but you have to realize that I work hard at my job and at the time, even if I was away... everything I did was for you guys."

"Then why didn't you make an effort to at least see me?" Erik asked, "Part of the reason I joined the service was to try and find you... to be closer to you. I thought, maybe if I could make my Papa proud and be a good soldier, you'd be more involved again."

Senior rose from the bench and put his hands on his son's shoulders, "Do you really want to know why I distanced myself? It was because you reminded me so much of your mother. I know it's no excuse and it doesn't make up for these years of being away... but looking at you and being around you was always difficult. It reminded me of her and how much it hurt me when she left."

Erik relented and his anger abated in light of his father's admission. Senior bowed his head, "Erik... I'm sorry. I know you must be upset about all this, and I'd understand if you didn't forgive me but..."

"But nothing," Erik replied gently, "What matters is that we're here now and being honest with each other. We may have lost many years, but it's not too late to make up for lost time."

"Erik... you'd forgive me? Just like that?" Senior asked in bewilderment.

The Blue Ranger swallowed a lump in his throat and embraced his father, "Of course. You're my Papa... and I still love you."

Senior paused in surprise as he hugged his son and smiled, "You do realize you probably just violated a few military protocols just now, right?"

Erik laughed as he let go, "You aren't going to court martial me, are you?"

"I think I can overlook this little incident," Senior replied with a relieved smile. The two men straightened back up and exchanged a salute with one another.

From where she was standing, Ella watched the reconciliation with a smile and began to walk back over hoping to help smooth things over some more. As she did, Erik cleared his throat, "Papa, I'd like you to meet Lt. Ella Catalano. She's a fellow Ranger and a good friend of mine."

The Pink Ranger gave a salute and extended a hand, "It's a pleasure to meet you sir. I just want to say, Erik's a good Ranger and is well liked by the squad."

"Well... I'm sure he didn't get that from me," Senior answered with a faint smile, surprising everyone with a little self deprecating humor. "Nice to meet you too Lieutenant."

Before the three could converse more, the chimes of the morphers went off signaling trouble. Ella answered first, "We're here. Go ahead."

On the other end of the comms, they could hear Lucy's voice monitoring the situation back at Atlantis Ops, "Rangers... we've picked up a large force of Xeno ships bearing down on your location. Elements of a large alien battle-group has just penetrated our defense lines and is landing in Haifa. The fleet and orbital guns are engaging the rest of the enemy ships above but this group of invaders seems intent to break through."

"Are they after the rebel clones, or maybe those shield matrixes?" Ella asked.

Lucy sounded uncertain, "We're not sure what the objective is yet Ella. Caldwell wants the Rangers to secure the matrixes first."

"Understood," she answered as air raid sirens went off over the city. The attacks must have already begun. Ella turned to her comrade, "Erik? It's time to go."

The Blue Ranger looked to his father, "Get clear and stay safe Papa. I'm going to go deal with this. We'll talk later, okay?"

The old sea captain gave a quick nod and clapped his son's shoulder, "I'll see you soon."

* * *

Meanwhile, fire began raining from the skies as alien transports descended on the city. Civilians went scrambling for cover in shelters as drone soldiers were dropped and began to spread out while assaulting the nearby buildings. From the lobby of her downtown hotel, Christina Lasky and several of her fellow volunteers watched in horror as the drone warriors surrounded the area and began to secure the exits of buildings to keep people from escaping. Amid the panic of other civilians present, she remained relatively calm and reached for her phone. She quickly punched in a number and put it to her ear hoping her call would get through in the chaos. Right now, she had to hope because it was all she had.

By now, the Nova Rangers had regrouped and were transported to a location near Haifa's industrial district. According to a quick radio call from General Caldwell, the shielding devices for the UNAF space fleet were housed nearby and would likely come under fire. When they arrived, the Rangers could see the whole area was already under attack and they prepared to morph into action when another call came through. Martin could hear Julian's voice call over the other end, "Captain, there's a call coming in for you."

"Now's not a great time Julian," the Red Ranger responded as the other Rangers morphed in a flash.

"This is urgent sir. You might want to take it. I'm patching you through now."

He morphed and waited a moment before he heard Chrissy's voice come through over the other end. "Martin? Are you there? Can you hear me?"

His heart stopped a moment and he stepped aside remembering she was also present in the city. "Oh my God... I'm here Chrissy. What's wrong? What's happening?"

Her voice was shaky, "I don't know how much longer I have to talk. There are Xeno soldiers crawling all over the city center. They haven't harmed anyone yet, but they're keeping anyone from coming or going."

"Okay... just try to hide and keep your head down," he said, "We're fighting off an attack right now, but I'll come back for you... I promise."

"I know you will. I'll be waiting," she said as the call cut out.

Erik stepped forward and gave a nod, "Don't worry Captain. We'll get her back. Let's get to work here?"

"Right... thanks Erik. Rangers? Let's get a move on!"

Soon enough, the Nova Rangers charged deeper into the district until they came upon the smoldering ruins of the warehouse containing most of the shield generators. It was clear that the meager UN forces who had been standing guard had been routed and fled. Enemy drone soldiers were crawling around the area wrecking havoc before a menacing figure emerged from the flames. The High Commander of the Xeno forces had taken the field himself and he plodded forward in his heavy dark powered armor. The eye slits in his visor glowed menacingly and his helmet gave off a fearful visage amidst the shadows and flames. The Rangers all stopped and stared as Warmaster Hellspont faced them and greeted his enemies personally.

"So these are the Nova Rangers," the Warmaster laughed as he drew out an energy sword and ignited it, "At last I get to meet you face to face."

"Is he for real?" Erin whispered in fear to hear comrades, "Is that really the Warmaster himself?"

Hellpsont turned to the Red Ranger, "I'm here to pay you back for the destruction you caused to our mothership Martin Sterling. You don't think I've forgotten the way you insulted me the last time we faced each other."

"I swore I'd kill you," Martin growled as he drew his own plasma saber followed by the others,  
"You only get one more warning. Leave this planet and never come back."

Hellspont shook his head, "You know I can't do that Captain. The Overlord grows impatient and so do I. He's coming to assimilate your world and I'm going to clear the way for a glorious new era on Earth."

"You mean hell on Earth," Erik corrected him with a scowl.

"Call it what you will, but you won't stand in our way," Hellspont said, "Without your precious new shield generators, your pitiful fleet cannot stand against the tidal wave that is coming for revenge... and now that I'm here, I plan to take some revenge for myself."

"You can try," the Red Ranger shouted as he rushed forward and led the others in an all out attack against the Xeno army's highest ranking commander.

The Warmaster swung his sword and deflected the slashes of Martin and Erin before pushing them aside with great strength. Bharata and Erik followed up next from the flank and the Blue Ranger clashed blades using his momentum to push the Xeno back a few steps. Hellspont planted his feet and parried Erik aside but the opening gave Bharata just enough time to surprise him with a flying jump kick.

Hellsponst staggered back and raised his guard just in time to deflect a volley of sniper fire from Jake along with Ella and her plasma pistol nearby. A few plasma bolts got through and singed his armor lightly causing the general to growl, "You six are not the same Rangers I killed several years ago. I'm almost impressed."

The Warmaster surprised everyone by jetting forward with some jump jets built into the boots of his powered armor and he attacked again. The Rangers scattered and ducked the attack just in time and were batted back one by one with the heavily armored gauntlets that the Warmaster sported. As they tumbled back and regrouped, they were surprised again as Hellspont converted his gauntlets into cannon blasters and blew them backwards with a dual salvo of super powered energy bursts.

"Man... he's tough," Bharata grunted as he struggled to pick himself up.

"Maybe, but we're tougher," Martin answered trying to rally his team for a second wind, "It's time to go Supernova!"

The six Rangers called their enhanced powers in a flash of colorful shimmering light, rearmed and protected by their personal weapons and white steel armor.

"You can call as many little toys as you want. You cannot match me," Hellspont laughed as Ella lashed out first with her whip and snared one of his wrists. Before he could pull Ella away, the Warmaster was stunned by a burst from Erin's sonic cannon followed up by a strike from Bharata's Disruptor staff. The Green Ranger staggered the Warmaster back with a few glancing blows until his weapon was grabbed by Hellspont.

"You little worm..."

Before Hellspont could lash out at Bharata Erik used his opening to jet forward and smash his panzerfaust mace into the Xeno general's chest causing him to fly backwards. Erik leveled his weapon and fired the warhead but the Warmaster flicked his blade back around and hacked the explosive creating a powerful fireball which rocked the whole area.

As the Rangers ducked for a moment and let the shockwave pass, they looked back up into the flames and saw Hellspont kneeling in his same spot. The tremendous blast had rattled him a little and caused some cosmetic damage to his armor, but not in any particularly significant way. He began to laugh, "Was that really your best shot?"

"No. This is," Martin interrupted as he loaded a power cell into his Nova Magnum and fired a few shots followed by a Spiral Finisher. The supercharged shots knocked the Warmaster back a few paces before the spiraling volley blew him backwards.

The Rangers regrouped and watched as Hellspont picked himself up again and shook off the last attack. Again, the Xeno general began to laugh and the Rangers exchanged an unnerved look with each other. Jake was the first to openly address their growing anxiety, "Okay... does anyone have any more good ideas? We basically just threw the kitchen sink at this guy and he's still standing."

Before anyone could react, the Warmaster charged his own plasma blade and swept it along the ground creating a rolling shockwave of energy which tore up the soil and slammed into the Nova Rangers throwing them backwards.

The six lay stunned on the ground as their super modes gave out and reverted them back to their original battle suits. As they struggled to pick themselves up off the ground, the Warmaster surprised them by sheathing his weapon and recalling his troops back to a transport ship which touched down nearby. He turned to his opponents and scoffed gesturing to the ruined battlefield and the destroyed warehouses, "Now we are even Rangers. Remember your failure here. There is no greater torture than to let you reflect on your own suffering. The next time we meet, we will finish our fight for good."

As the transport ship closed and took off into the skies, the Rangers got back up and called on their Supernova powers one more time. They fired their jetpacks and took off into the skies in a feeble attempt to try and chase the escaping transport as it made its escape. Martin aimed his Magnum and fired several futile shots at the transport, "Stand and fight, coward! Come back here you bastard!"

From the hold of his transport ship, Hellspont smiled and pulled a detonator that he was carrying. He placed his finger on the trigger and began to laugh at the irony of paying the Rangers back in the same way they had raided the mothership before. Without a second thought, he pushed the trigger and continued to fill the ship with his laughter.

Outside, the Rangers stopped their ascent into the skies as Erin turned in panic and pointed toward Haifa. She shouted in alarm to her fellow Rangers, "Oh my God... everyone! Look!"

The Rangers stopped in midair and turned to see a horrific sight unfold in front of them. Several large fireballs blossomed out from the city center and spread causing chaos, death, and fiery destruction in its wake. Down below, all the drone soldiers who had taken up spots guarding buildings and civic centers suddenly erupted into terrible fireballs as the high yield explosives planted inside them detonated at the Warmaster's trigger.

Tall plumes of black smoke began to rise into the air like hellish columns while flames danced around several civilian centers in Haifa. If the Warmaster meant for that to be a horrific diversion to escape, he had succeeded this time. The Rangers broke off pursuit from the transport and flew as fast as their powers would carry them to try and save as many lives as they possibly could.

* * *

Back in the city of Haifa, chaos and calamity reigned as flames and burning buildings lit up the skies while panicked civilians ran through the streets trying to escape the devastation. Some were shell shocked and irrational while other injured citizens staggered about in a daze like zombies. Handfuls of first responders like local police and firemen did their best to try and take care of victims while groups of UNAF security troops did their best to evacuate the injured and dig victims out of the rubble.

By now, Erik rushed through the burning streets followed by Bharata and Ella doing what they could for people they encountered along the way. While Bharata and Ella comforted some crying civilians who had barely escaped and were looking for a safe zone, Erik continued to look about the chaos with a racing heart. Memories of Crimea were beginning to pull at his mind and he struggled to focus through his fear. He had lost Ana in a similar attack and he couldn't bear to lose his father too... especially when they were just beginning to reconnect again.

The agitated Blue Ranger continued on alone and passed by a crew of firemen who were working to put out the fires which had engulfed an apartment building. He continued to push forward until he came across a man desperately pulling at a fallen wooden beam from a ruined building. The man turned to the Blue Ranger and gave a panicked look, "Help me! Please help! My son is trapped!"

Erik hurried over and grabbed the beam before lifting it. There was a lot of rubble and despite the enhanced strength of his Ranger suit, Erik struggled to push away the ruins. As he faltered, Erik was surprised as another pair of hands came to help him and give the needed strength to clear the beam. The beam shifted and fell away as a little boy crawled out from the rubble and was reunited with his relieved father.

Erik smiled as he watched the reunion and turned in surprise to see the man who had helped him lift the beam. Standing beside him was his own father Captain Dobermann Sr. After the civilians thanked them and hurried away from the scene, the Blue Ranger paused and turned to his father who addressed him. "Papa... you're safe."

"I am," Senior confirmed as Erik drew him into another hug, "And so are you."

"I was afraid I was going to lose you," Erik admitted, "I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if something happened and I didn't get a chance to make things right with you again."

"It's going to take more than a few explosives to stop this old sea dog," Senior laughed gently as he put a hand on Erik's shoulder, "And I'm glad you share that toughness. Seeing what you did just now, and everything before that... I'm proud of you son."

Erik removed his helmet and gave an exhausted but heartfelt smile to his father, "We have a lot of catching up to do, and once this is all sorted out I was hoping we could do it over a trip back home to Munich and to Sarah."

Nearby, Bharata and Ella had caught up and kept their distance watching the happy reunion. They exchanged a smile between each other as Ella spoke, "Well Bara... I don't know about you, but I'm glad something good has come out of all this today, don't you think?"

* * *

Meanwhile, deeper into the ruins of the downtown area, Martin pushed his way through the crowds followed by Erin and Jake. The Red Ranger forced his way through the crowds and debris with single minded focus as he used the nav sensors in his helmet's visor to guide him. As he followed the nav arrows to the address Christina's hotel, he spoke quietly repeating a sort of mantra to himself, "Please be okay."

Eventually, the three Rangers reached their destination and the crowds parted revealing a horrific sight. The hotel and several buildings around it had been reduced to blazing rubble. Nothing was left but ruins and fire. Erin covered her mouth and Jake remained unusually quiet before Martin turned and grabbed a local fireman who was carrying a fresh oxygen tank to some of his teammates. The Red Ranger shook the man desperately and pointed to the ruins in front of them, "This building! Did anyone get out? Have you seen anyone leave this building?"

"I... I don't know..." the bewildered fireman gasped as he pulled himself free of the distraught Ranger, "It was like this when I got here."

Martin turned to other people in the crowd and pulled off his helmet, "Did anyone make it out of this building? Is anyone there? Did you see any survivors? Answer me!"

Many of the shocked onlookers recoiled and remained silent, uncertain of how to respond before a local shopkeeper, stepped forward and shook his head, "I'm sorry sir. I was hiding in my shop across the street and the blasts blew out my windows. The whole place caved in and was completely covered in flames.

Martin stared dumbly at the owner and blinked several times before staggering forward in a dazed stupor. He dropped his helmet and fell to his knees, "We were too late. I was too late. Chrissy... I'm so sorry..."

The flames continued to burn as Erin and Jake walked over and joined their grieving commander. For once, he looked completely stupefied and lost. The Yellow Ranger put a gentle hand on his shoulder, trying in vain to offer some shred of comfort, "Captain... I'm sorry."

He continued staring at the fires with a blank catatonic expression before Jake spoke quietly, "Sir? What's going to happen now?"

The Red Ranger clenched a fist and took a moment to steady his breathing before speaking in a deadly serious tone, "Enough people have died today. One way or another, I am going to put an end to this war... once and for all."

* * *

 **A/N:**  
 **So yeah... uh, that happened. Trust me, I considered other options and I really hated having to do this, but I also think this was the best way to go and have the most impact on the story. For what it's worth, thank you again to everyone who participated in the poll. I promise I'll get around to writing the next chapter... once I'm done feeling sad about this.  
**

 **Coming up on the next installment, Martin is left struggling to pick up the pieces from the tragic aftermath of Haifa. When alien forces add insult to injury by laying siege to his own home city, will he choose to go seek revenge? Oblivion? Or both?**


	34. Forlorn Hope

**Mission 28: Part 1  
**

Over a week had passed since the disastrous mission to Israel and the mood around Atlantis Base had been somewhat subdued. Despite repelling the Xeno assault in Haifa, the enemy had struck a major blow to UNAF morale. The aliens had effected a limited breakthrough and managed to destroy an important facility which was equipping the Terran space fleet. Although a few of the shield matrixes had survived and were installed to some warships, it was nowhere near enough should the main bulk of the alien fleet attack Earth.

To make matters worse, Warmaster Hellsponst had essentially bested the Nova Rangers in their first meeting and taunted their ineffectiveness. To add insult to injury, a force of his drone soldiers had been used as suicide bombers to cause a large amount of death and destruction in the city. Of course, none of the Rangers expected that Martin's girlfriend Christina would have been caught in the attack and lost her life either. Since then, the commander of Nova Squad had begun to worry his fellow Rangers by becoming unusually sullen and withdrawn. After briefly returning stateside to attend a service and meet with Chrissy's family, Martin kept to himself. He barricaded himself in his room, skipped scheduled training drills, ate meals at odd hours, and hardly conversed with anyone.

On that particular day, Lt. Bharata Timothy made his way to the North End of the base where the runways and fighter jets could be found. As he stepped outside and headed toward one of the open hangers, he drew his duty jacket closer to his body to stay warm. Despite the morning sunlight, there was still a slight crisp chill in the early October air... that and the fact that Bharata hailed from a warm tropical island nation meant he wasn't a fan of cold weather in general.

He strolled along and entered the hanger finding the place was unusually quiet and empty, save for one soul there. Near the rear of the hanger, Martin was busy cleaning the fuselage of the Pegasus fighter he often flew on patrols. The Red Ranger scrubbed the plane quietly and kept his attention fixed on his task. He didn't seem to notice Bharata approaching at all. The Green Ranger marched up behind him and cleared his throat, "Captain Sterling? Sir?"

Martin stopped scrubbing and slowly looked to his comrade. He gave a nod of acknowledgment and went back to work, "Bara. Is there a problem?"

Bharata shifted uncomfortably and adjusted his glasses slightly, "Well sir... yes. That's why I came to find you this morning. The whole squad is a little worried about you."

"I appreciate the concern Bara, but you don't have to worry about me. I'm fine," Martin answered flatly as he scrubbed a little harder.

Bharata stared incredulously for a moment before crossing his arms, "Permission to speak freely, sir?"

"Of course."

"Good, because I don't believe you."

Martin stopped and turned calmly, "What did you say?"

"I said I think you're full of crap... sir," Bharata said firmly, "For God's sake man, you're not okay. Look at yourself."

From where the Green Ranger was standing, he could see that his commander looked unwell. Martin's duty uniform was wrinkled and unkempt. He had about two days worth of unshaved stubble on his face, and he looked like he had barely slept in days. "You don't just lose a girl you had been in a relationship with for over a year and just walk away saying everything is fine. You're not fooling anyone."

"So what? Did you come here to lecture me? Or complain about something because I haven't kept my normal routine for a few days?"

"It's been more than a few days Captain," Bharata corrected him, "And yes. Since Erik went home to Munich with Ella and his father, I've been left to fill in with all the administrative tasks."

"And it seems like you've been doing a fine job so far," Martin replied, "I'm sure you'll be well on your way to the rank of Captain."

Bharata shook his head, "Listen Martin, forget about that right now. You haven't been acting normal and the other Rangers are concerned. If you're not mentally here, what will happen if we get called into battle again? The team's morale is already down and you're not helping it."

Martin frowned with a flash of anger, "All right Lieutenant. Tell me then, what am I supposed to do? Do you want me to act like some robot and just carry on like always? You want me to be like one of those Xenos?"

He stopped and turned around, "Maybe I'm just growing sick and tired of this whole god damn war. I'm tired of seeing people I love and care about getting hurt and killed. Maybe I'm getting tired of fighting, of always wondering when and where the next battle will be. I've been fighting this war for the last seven years and I don't see an end in sight. Maybe I'm starting to wonder what the point of all this is so you'll excuse me if for the first time in years, I'm seriously questioning the sacrifices I'm making."

"Are you going to include us with that sacrifice?" Bharata challenged, "Is that it then? Are you just going to throw your hands up and quit when you've come this far? When you've led the rest of us this far?"

"You're crossing the line now Bara."

"The hell I am," Bharata fired back raising his voice, "I know I generally keep a lot of opinions to myself but you need to listen to me right now! I know you're hurting but you can't just walk away either. We Rangers follow you because we believe in you and we believe that we can win together."

The Green Ranger paused a moment and spoke in a quieter voice, "But you should remember we're also your friends and we'll help you... and it looks like you need that help right now."

Martin paused and fell silent as he relaxed his stance and looked at the Green Ranger. Bharata sighed and offered a hand, "Come on. Why don't you get cleaned up? Get some food and sleep and then we can talk. Maybe do some relaxing katas in the training gym?"

"If you want to help me, then just leave me be. Let me deal with this my own way."

Bharata stood his ground, "Frankly Captain, I'm starting to question if that way will do any good."

Martin's voice grew sharp and he snapped back, "And what do you know about how I feel right now?"

"Because I lost a girl I loved before too, remember?" Bharata answered, "I watched her grow sicker and weaker and there was nothing I could do. I know what that particular feeling of guilt is like and how powerless you feel to stop it. It's a dark path and I don't want to see you go down it too."

The Red Ranger fell silent and considered his friend's words. He finally nodded and turned to leave the hanger, "Bharata... do me a favor? Make sure someone finishes cleaning the rest of my fighter up. I'm going to start by doing some cleaning up myself."

"I'll see to it," Bharata nodded.

As Martin continued to walk, he stopped a moment and turned his head slightly, "And Bara?"

"Captain?"

"Thank you for the friendly advice. I'll... take it under advisement."

With that, he left the hangers and Bahrata stopped to smile quietly before walking over to finish cleaning the fighter jet himself.

* * *

Later that day, Erik and Ella returned from a short trip to Munich. Erik's father Captain Dobermann Sr. had been talked into coming along to visit his granddaughter Sarah and it had been a productive couple days. Despite being buoyed by the joy and happiness that Sarah had shown to all the visitors for her, the two Rangers still felt a cloud of trepidation and melancholy over returning to the base. Their having returned reminded them that they were returning to the harsh realities and challenges of fighting their war again. Nothing could have been a more stark reminder of that than the death of the team's friend Christina and the negative effect it had triggered in their squad commander.

The two walked off the transit platform and gave a quick salute to the junior officer manning the controls before leaving the room and heading into the main hallways of the base. They figured it was best to return to their own quarters so that they could rest and get ready for their next day back on duty. As they walked the bustling hallways, the two chatted idly about the trip and what they were thinking.

"Thank you again for letting me tag along," Ella said with a faint smile, "I had fun meeting your family and I guess it's only fair after what I put you through in Rome."

Erik shrugged, "Sure. Everyone seemed to like you and Sarah especially seemed to take a shine to you too."

"I know what you mean. I was a little shocked when Sarah asked if I might become her new mom in the future," Ella remarked.

Erik flushed, "Ah... I'm really sorry about that. You know how little kids are... just asking all kinds of embarrassing questions without thinking things through. I'm sorry if you felt weird or anything."

She shook her head, "No, it's okay. I admit... the thought of becoming a mom caught me off guard and seems like the last thing on my mind while this war is going on, you know?"

"Absolutely. I couldn't agree more."

They walked in silence for a moment before the Pink Ranger spoke up again, "I might not be anywhere near thinking about that sort change yet... but I have given some thought about some changes in my role too."

Erik raised an eyebrow, "Oh? What kind of changes do you mean?"

They stopped in the hallway as Ella took a breath, "Well... for starters, I was thinking I could try being a girlfriend first."

The Blue Ranger blinked, "I... what?"

"Erik, what happened in Haifa... it gave me a lot to think about," Ella replied quietly, "I still feel very sad about what happened to Chrissy and I really worry for Martin right now. I know you do too and so does the rest of the squad. I guess what I'm trying to say is that you reconciling with your father and Martin losing someone he loved made me realize how important it is to make the most of every moment... to really appreciate the time we all have together in living because none of us know what that will suddenly be taken away... or if one of us might be taken away. I've been thinking about it and I wanted to just tell you how much you mean as a friend, a teammate, and maybe... hopefully... something more."

Erik paused a moment trying to take in the entirety of that admission before nodding, "Ella... to be honest, I think I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel the same way, or that I hadn't been thinking the same sort of things recently too. Being your friend and teammate is something special to me too and there is a part of me that wants to try being something more too, but I worry this might not be the right time for it, you know? We're fighting a war and we can't be distracted. There's also that chain of command that we shouldn't violate either. It wouldn't be fair if I showed you favoritism or preferential treatment just because we were in an intimate relationship."

"I know that," Ella nodded calmly, "For what it's worth I just wanted to get it out in the open so that maybe, someday when this war is over we can figure out what to do then. Until that time, I agree it's best we stay focused on our duty."

Erik gave a relieved smile and nodded, "Yeah... I feel the same way and I think that's a good idea."

Ella extended a hand, "Okay. Should we shake on it or something?"

Erik smiled and took a moment to remove the Captain insignia pins on his duty jacket before stepping forward and surprising his friend with a little kiss on the lips. He put the pins back on and gave a nod, "All right, now that we've got that settled, I think it's best you head to your quarters and get some rest. We'll have to start getting back into the swing of things tomorrow."

"You're not going to your own room too?" Ella asked curiously as Erik began walking down a different hallway leading away from the officer's quarters.

"I will, but I need to make a quick stop first. There's someone I need to speak with first."

* * *

Late that evening, Dr. Lucy Beckett left her lab for the night and walked down the now quieter hallways of the base. There was obviously still a night shift for a base that was always on alert 24-7 and base personnel were always still present. Still, it was considerably less crowded and noisy than during the daytime. Lucy made her way toward the officers' quarters of the base and passed by a sentry who was standing guard and doing a routine nightly patrol of the hall. Lucy recognized the young male sergeant and gave him a friendly nod as he let her pass by without any trouble.

When she reached th right door, she stopped and paused before taking a breath and pressing the button for the door chime. She waited a few moments before a light on the door signaled it was open. She opened the hatch and stepped inside carefully. She peered inside and saw the lights had been dimmed. "Martin? Are you there? It's me."

Lucy walked further into the room and found her friend standing by one of the large vertical window panes in the room looking out over one end of the city. He seemed to be lost in thought looking outside and up at the skies. The hint of chilly autumn air filtered in from the partially opened slat in the window and Lucy rubbed her arms slightly to ward off the cool air as she was only wearing her light white work blouse. "Stargazing again?"

"The skies are unusually clear tonight," he commented idly without turning around, "I just had to look."

Lucy nodded and walked over to sit down on the foot of his bed, "I'm sure she's looking down at you too wanting to make sure you're okay."

The Red Ranger turned around and snorted as he closed the window and turned back to face Lucy, "Easy for you to say... because I don't feel okay."

"You shaved. That's a start," she noted as he walked over to his desk chair and took his duty jacket.

He came over and offered it to Lucy and she put it over her shoulders to keep warm. She thanked him and looked around the room. It was normally very tidy and organized but right now, the room looked to be in a state of minor disarray. She also noted some changes to the pictures in the room. He had always had some artwork of old outdated US Air Force planes from the 21st century along with some pictures of nebulas and galaxies. Along the desk and shelves, he also kept a few framed photos of family and friends including the old Alpha Rangers and the modern Nova Rangers. She did notice a few of the pictures had now been set facedown.

"I'm sorry my place is a mess right now," he muttered.

"It's okay," she said shaking her head, "I just wanted to come check up on you. See how you were doing... that and because the Rangers thought it might be a good idea that I be the one to do it."

"Erik put you up to this, didn't he?" Martin sighed as he sat down beside her.

Lucy shrugged and a brief silence fell over the room. Martin folded his hands and sighed again, "I can't cry."

"No one is asking you to," Lucy answered but Martin laughed sardonically.

"Oh everybody is asking me to. Let it all out. Talk about it. You'll feel better."

Lucy eyed him, "Isn't that what you're doing now?"

The Red Ranger fell silent and chewed his lip, "I keep thinking to myself... what if I had done something differently? What if I told Chrissy to try running away instead? Hell, I should have told her not to be there in Israel in the first place."

"You didn't know this was going to happen. None of us did," Lucy said comfortingly, "She was there of her own choice because she wanted to help the clones and be near you."

"Well I failed her then," Martin grimaced, "How many more people have to die because of me, hmm?"

"What happened to your old team and to Chrissy were not your fault. It was Hellspont's," Lucy corrected him.

"Then why do I still feel so guilty?"

Lucy tightened her features, "Because you loved them. Because you loved her... right?"

He nodded quietly, "I do... or rather, I did."

Lucy put a hand on his shoulder and let a short silence fall before she said, "Why don't you take some time off to grieve? Ask Caldwell for a short leave?"

"He already offered me one. I refused," Martin said quietly, "I can grieve when the war is over and I have my revenge on the Xenos. Right now, we need to be prepared and focused on our duties. Bharata reminded me of that this morning. I owe that much to my squad."

Lucy nodded, "You've dealt with this sort of thing before. But this time, you've got six new friends to help you deal with it."

"And you," he said looking right at her, "You've always been there for me, both on and off the battlefield and I can't thank you enough for that... especially right now."

Lucy reached over and drew his head down to her shoulder cradling it in a comforting hug. Another silence fell between them before he looked up a moment, "Luce... do you think you can stay here with me tonight? I don't mean like..."

She nodded in understanding and hugged him close again, "It's okay. I know... and yes."

He took a trembling breath and said in a small voice, "I need you right now."

"I'd never leave you."

At that moment, Lucy Beckett felt her friend tremble a moment before she heard a sound that she hadn't listened to in many years... the sound of her friend crying. She had always thought it was funny how Rangers were always there to put others before themselves and to comfort those who needed help. They always had to appear strong, stoic, and brave but it was easy to forget sometimes that those seemingly larger than life heroes were still very human and just as vulnerable as everyone else. Some just kept up the act better than others.

Right now, Lucy knew she had a duty and that was to her oldest friend. She continued to hold her friend close as he sobbed and wept bitterly. Her job had always been to support and assist the Rangers and at the moment, she would continue to do her job... for as long as it took and as long as she was needed.


	35. Home Front

**Mission 28: Part 2  
**

The next day, Erik Dobermann sat with the other younger Nova Rangers at a table in the mess hall. They were finishing lunch and getting themselves mentally prepared for an afternoon booked full of training sessions. Despite the continued quieter mood around the base, there some light banter from across the table as Jake and Ella laughed over a few jokes while Erin and Bharata chatted quietly. The Blue Ranger gave a mild sigh and took a sip of tea before turning his head to see a surprising sight.

Everyone stopped and turned to see their commander Martin Sterling enter the hall and stride toward their table. To everyone's surprise and relief, he was looking more like his normal self again: clean shaven with a fresh ironed duty uniform and an alert look about him. As the Red Ranger approached the table, the others fell silent as Erik rose to attention and called the others to order, "At ease."

"As you were everyone," Martin answered casually waving off the protocol as he reached the table.

"You're looking well today Captain. It's good to see you again and have you back," Erik offered.

"Thanks Erik," Martin replied looking to his team gathered around the table, "Everyone? I wanted to come here today to apologize to all of you. I've been neglecting my duties and the squad and none of you should have to suffer for my weakness."

"Don't be so hard on yourself sir," Erin answered gently, "We know you've been going through a rough patch right now but it's nothing we can't handle."

"Regardless... I still want to thank you all for putting up with me and offering to help in your own ways. I do appreciate it."

Erik moved over and made room at the table, "Do you want to join us? We were just finishing and..."

Before anyone else could speak, a general low level warning klaxon began to sound and everyone in the base stopped and looked up in surprise. Soldiers and airmen immediately rose from their seats and began to head out the doors for their assigned meeting areas. There they would await further orders as the whole base went into a state of battle readiness. The Rangers all exchanged troubled looks as they headed out of the mess hall and Jake asked, "Why would we be going to battle stations? What's going on?"

His question was immediately answered as their morphers sounded and General Caldwell spoke to them, "Rangers, I need you in my briefing room right now. There's a major situation developing as we speak."

"What's wrong General? The whole base is going into lockdown," Erin called.

"I'll explain when you get here Lieutenant. All I can say is that it's not looking good right now."

With that, the Rangers picked up the pace and continued to hustle down the busy hallways as the sense of urgency began to spread further through the base and caused a general scramble.

* * *

A short time later, the Nova Rangers convened in the central Command Tower of the base and took their respective seats at Caldwell's conference table. The general wore a grim look and his features were all taut with concern. He gave a squad a curt nod as they were seated and brought up his holographic projector. "Rangers… it looks like the day we've been fearing has finally arrived."

He pulled up the display showing a view from the Earth's high orbit where a large number of Xeno Machina warships were engaged in a space battle with the Earth's defenses. There was a dense cloud of multicolored radar blips showing UNAF space frigates and cruisers holding a defensive formation alongside the orbital gun platforms. They were coordinating blistering torpedo volleys and ion cannon salvos against the incoming cloud of Xeno ships but it was looking like a desperate battle to hold the line. Large holes had been punched through the Terran fleet's line along with the wreckage of some orbital guns which had been destroyed by the all out rush of alien ships. Despite suffering major losses and damage, the Xeno fleet looked to have the advantage in what was fast becoming a brutal war of attrition.

Caldwell stood at rigid attention, "Approximately two hours ago, the full Xeno Machina fleet launched an all out attack against our defenses in high orbit. Admiral Viera reports that the UNAF space fleet has managed to hold their positions and repulse several pushes but the situation is growing tense. We've inflicted some heavy losses on the other side but there is reason to believe the alien mothership has lifted off from the moon and is on the move here."

A horrified silence fell over the table as Erik swallowed hard, "If that's true, then the mothership's arrival would be just the push the Xenos need for a complete breakthrough."

Caldwell nodded, "Yes. Unfortunately, pockets of enemy invasion forces have managed to break through in several areas and begun making moves on some major cities on the surface."

He changed the display to show a more focused view of North America where a few large red dots were pinging over some major cities. "Large invasion ships have broken though over North America and started furious assaults on the cities of Montreal, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York, and Mexico City."

Ella covered her mouth with her hands in wide eyed shock, "I can't believe it. This is horrible."

The whole squad turned to Martin as he sat silently fixated on the red dot pinging virulently over the Great Lakes region of the US. His own home city was under direct attack.

Caldwell took a breath to steady himself and nodded, "Rangers, UNAF forces in North America have already begun to coordinate plans to counterattack and drive out the invaders, but it's going to be a massive effort on several fronts at once. Los Angeles was requesting help first and…"

"General Caldwell, requesting permission to be reassigned," Martin interrupted as he stood up. "I'd like to fight my battle back home in Chicago."

Caldwell grimaced, "Captain Sterling… I know how upsetting this is to you right now, especially after everything else, but Los Angeles…"

"Doesn't have my family or friends there," the Red Ranger interrupted again, "Please General. I'm begging you. Let me fight to protect to my home. I need this."

Caldwell looked to him and considered his words as Martin made one more plea, "General, I couldn't protect someone I loved in Haifa and I paid for it. I want a second chance to make things right by protecting my other loved ones back home… and to pay the Xenos back tenfold."

Caldwell nodded slowly and looked to the others, "If the rest of the squad feels the same way?"

Erik watched the others nod in assent and rose from his seat, "We do General. If Captain Sterling needs our support in this operation, then we're all prepared to stand behind him and give it."

Despite the grim situation, the Red Ranger gave a faint smile of gratitude, "Thank you Erik… and thank you everyone. I'll need you more than ever now."

Jake rose from the table and pounded his first, "Right then, what are we waiting for? Let's get going and take back the Windy City, yeah?"

* * *

Several hours later, the Nova Rangers were transported to an airbase located in Battle Creek, Michigan. Once there, Erik and the younger Rangers boarded the Sky Zord to fly into battle alongside a large joint wing of American and Canadian fighter squadrons. From the cockpit of the zord, Erik shifted nervously as he did his best to fly the big bulky zord in formation behind a large cloud of allied fighter planes. Unfortunately, the Amphibious Assault zord was still undergoing repairs after taking massive damage during a titan battle in Tokyo. For now, he'd have to try and steer the sky ship and not give other Rangers a sense he was uncomfortable with it. Again, he may have served several years in the German Air Force, but that didn't mean he was a natural when it came to flying aircraft either.

He checked one of his proximity sensors and saw that Martin was flying a Pegasus fighter alongside him in a sort of escort position. He heard the Red Ranger radio over to him, "How are you guys holding up over there Erik?""

The Blue Ranger glanced back to where the other Rangers were sitting quietly and strapped in to their seats, "We're okay sir. Just trying not to think about what happens if the dam breaks over our heads."

"We'll treat it like every other Ranger battle. We'll secure the ground first and then we'll take it to the Xenos in space."

Erik snorted quietly, "You sound awfully confident about all that Martin."

"Good, then at least I'm fooling someone," the Red Ranger replied quietly.

Erik looked out the windows ahead of him and watched as the air forces continued to soar west across the waters of Lake Michigan toward the city of Chicago which was likely under siege if not captured already. The skies had grown darker as threatening clouds hung low and blotted out the bright light of the sun.

The Red Ranger angled off slightly and accelerated, "Remember, our job is to knock out the aliens' air support. When we do that, our allies on the ground will drive in from the north and push them out of the city."

"Heh… I've always wanted to see the US mainland up close," Bharata joked grimly while Ella tried to add in a little more banter to lighten the mood.

"Maybe if I'm lucky there will be a few high end shoe shops still standing. I'd love to see those too."

Back in the cockpit of his Pegasus fighter, Martin did a few last minute checks as the familiar sight of the city skyline rose from the waters. The US and Canadian pilots of the allied forces watched in dread as a colossal alien carrier hovered near the downtown of the city and partially over Lake Michigan. These gargantuan invasion craft were among the largest ships of the Xeno fleet in their ability to carry fighters, scores of landing craft, and hordes of troops. The looming carrier cast a large dark shadow over the city as Strigon fighters buzzed around it and troop transports went back and forth ferrying enemies to the ground.

Amid the dark skies and choppy waters of the lake below, plumes of smoke and fire billowed from points in the cityscape as several buildings and skyscrapers showed signs of damage. In the face of such destruction and overwhelming force from the invaders, Martin could only look on with a mixture of dread and fury toward the enemy aliens. Over the comms, several other American pilots were murmuring quiet oaths of shock and horror at the sight of the dying city.

As they neared, the voice of Lucy came in over the Ranger's comms, "Oh my God… are you really seeing this?"

The other Rangers could only sit wondering if this was the same scene going on in other cities across the continent, what more carnage would the alien mothership do if it were to finally arrive? Lucy took a moment to compose herself before steadying her voice, "Nova Squadron be advised, multiple enemy contacts dead ahead. I'm trying to lock on to the bio sign of the enemy ground commander but until then, your job is to knock out that super carrier."

"Understood," Erik answered, "The rest of the Rangers are standing by. Captain?"

"Let's rock and roll."

By now, the elite veteran pilots who were flying at the lead of the formations began issuing orders and throttling up while the aliens began to sortie out to the meet the UNAF attack. Long trailing plumes of smoke streaked across the skies as the exchange of fire from blaster cannons began to light up the skyline. No sooner had the Rangers entered Chicago airspace, they were engulfed in a furious aerial melee. Erik gasped and gripped the controls of the zord with white knuckles as he veered through the heavy traffic. All around him, missiles, gunfire, Strigons, and allied fighters were whizzing by. From their side consoles, Erin and Jake manned the guns and tried to pick out a few targets while Ella and Bharata simply held on for dear life.

As chaotic chatter filled the comms, Martin peeled off and wove past some damaged buildings to chase an enemy fighter. As they rolled northward, he could see several gaping holes in the city's iconic Sears Tower, one of the tallest in the world. They juked back and forth trying to counter each other's maneuvers before the superior agility of the Pegasus finally won out. The targeting box went red and Martin sent a missile straight into the tail of the alien fighter, "Locked! Fox-2!"

The Strigon was torn apart in midair and the wreckage rained down as the joint forces scattered and began their sequential attack on the massive super carrier. Erik rejoined Martin in the air as one group of fighters stayed in a holding pattern to provide air cover for the bombers. "Nova Leader, Skull and Rhino squadrons are commencing the first attack."

Martin nodded, "Roger that 2, let's give some support to Dragon, Phoenix, and Tiger Squadrons."

As they made another pass through the melee in the city, they watched as the first groups of UNAF fighters launched everything they had at the super carrier. Scores of missiles and bombs rocked the carrier but to everyone's shock, it had taken no damage. When the clouds of smoke and fire subsided, Jake gawked at the sight, "Bloody hell, that didn't even scratch the hull plating."

"We're going to need something a lot heavier to take out the shields on that super carrier," Ella remarked in agreement, "I'm not even sure an ion cannon will be able to punch through."

"Second problem," Bharata pointed out, "Say we broke through the shields. Look how heavy the hull plating is. That's going to be a whole other can of worms."

"Cut the chatter back there," Erik called as the zord took a few stray hits amid the firefight, "We've got another wing of Xenos inbound."

A fresh wave of Xeno Strigons swept into the chaotic battle trying to harry their human enemies. The zord rattled again as Erik checked the rear sensors and saw he had picked up a pursuer. "Oh shit."

He took off northward to try and get the Rangers clear of the thick of the fighting while maneuvering the zord as much as he could. As the enemy Strigon began to fire at the zord, Martin angled in to offer some help. "Bandit on your six Erik. Just stay calm. Break right, I'll take him."

The three aircraft zig-zagged in the skies before Erik made a banking dive toward the ground. Seeing he was now being chased, the Xeno fighter tried to maneuver free, but Martin kept him boxed in and lined up another kill shot, "Target acquired. Locked!"

He fired another missile which mangled the Strigon mid dive. Erik veered clear just as the dying enemy fighter tried to regain control and smashed directly through the main scoreboard of the baseball stadium Wrigley Field before disintegrating on the residential streets below.

"Whoah!" Erin exclaimed while staring at the sight of the demolished stadium, "Not good!"

Martin winced a little before giving a shrug and rejoining the Rangers, "Hmm, that's okay. I was always more of a White Sox fan anyway."

Lucy's voice suddenly cut in over the radio, "Rangers, the attack is faltering. We've already lost six allied aircraft. You need to break through to that carrier."

She was right, the allied forces were taking a pounding and they were getting slowly worn down and overwhelmed by the aliens. "We'd love to Luce, but we can't penetrate to the belly of the beast. Have any brilliant ideas?"

"Wait! That's it!" Erin exclaimed causing everyone to listen, "That's how we kill that carrier. We strike it from the belly itself. We can penetrate just enough though the shield to get in a transporter beam to the heart of the carrier."

"Are you nuts? You want us to board that thing?" Bahrata exclaimed in shock.

The Yellow Ranger shook her head, "No. We beam in some low yield tactical nukes and crack the nut from the inside."

"That idea is so crazy and brilliant, it just might work Erin," Martin grinned, "I like it. Lucy?"

"We'll get you those nukes Martin. In the mean time, I'm calculating the optimum flight course for the next run. Transmitting now."

The Red Ranger changed course and signaled all their allies present, "This is Nova-1 to all allies. We have a new game-plan. All Canadian and American aircraft, form up on me and prepare for a saturation attack on the Xeno carrier's shields. Prepare to concentrate fire on the point I'm designating in three, two, one, mark."

Several other UNAF fighters responded in affirmatives and joined the formation for an all out attack. Upon seeing the Terran fighters massing, the enemy carrier began to fire its point defense guns in earnest trying to gun down its attackers but the Sky zord led the way covering the fighters with its heavier armor and shields. Erik held the controls steady as the zord was buffeted and rocked by incoming fire. He held out just long enough before veering away and letting the cloud of fighters behind him fire off a cascading wave of devastating ordinance at the carrier. The attack worked just as intended and the missiles and torpedoes focused on one point was able to punch a hole through the carrier's shields. That one chink in the armor was all Lucy needed as she zeroed in on the point and transported a few small nuclear warheads which Julian set for delayed detonation.

The Terran fighters all began peeling off and swooping clear as the nukes were transported aboard the super carrier. Moments later, the bombs detonated and large bright explosions began to tear through the colossal spaceship. Shrapnel went flying everywhere as gouts of flames erupted out of the sides of the carrier and it listed in the air. The humans all gave a cheer at the sight as the flagship began to lose altitude and crash into the waters of Lake Michigan. Chaos began to reign in the skies as fighters on both sides scrambled to get clear and regroup.

Amid the pileup in the air, Martin gave a panicked cry as a cloud of shrapnel was belched toward him from the dying super carrier. The flaming fragments of the spaceship's hull and internal machinery slammed into his Pegasus along with several other aircraft nearby. Despite having his shields raised, the violent impacts and cloud of projectiles still managed to tear through in some spots. The projectiles cracked the canopy and punched a few holes in the wings and fuselage before a larger metal chunk of deck plating took out one of his vertical stabilizers.

Warning lights and alarms sounded in the cockpit as the Pegasus began to lose altitude and smoke trailed from his rear. Martin gasped and desperately tried to do an emergency restart but found the systems were dying out. He had taken too much damage. As he desperately shook the joystick, he heard Erik call over the radio, "Captain! You're on fire. Your tail... it's..."

"I know! I took some shrapnel but it's no use," Martin growled as he fumbled for the right levers, "I'm bailing out!"

He pulled the safety levers and keyed in the last command as the canopy of the dying Pegasus popped off and the ejector seat propelled him away from the fighter before it tumbled a short distance and exploded. The ejector seat gave way but before the safety parachute could deploy, the Red Ranger morphed in midair and went directly Supernova.

As the air battle began to calm down over the ravaged city, the other Nova Rangers moved to follow their leader has he fired his own suit's booster rockets and make his way toward the streets below. There was still another battle to fight and a field commander to deal with. For the Rangers, now was a chance at some redemption after the tragedy in Haifa and failure was not going to be a viable option.

* * *

 **A/N:**  
 **Sorry for the delay this week everyone. I'd been laid low by the common cold but the good news is the "plague" is ending now, lol.**

 **Oh and before anyone corrects me, yes. I know that it's the Willis Tower, but most natives of the city (including this author) refuse to call it that and are just set in their ways... like referring to expressways by names instead of numbers, or eating hotdogs without ketchup. No room for negotiation on those things. Yeah, it can be a strange place. ;)**


	36. Sweet Home Chicago

**Mission 28: Part 3  
**

Embers and smoke drifted upward through the skies as Martin Sterling descended from the air in his Ranger battlesuit. He coasted toward the ground in a controlled fall using his suit's jet thruster and looked up to see the rest of his Ranger team were joining him in midair. As the aerial battle over Chicago was winding down in favor of the UNAF forces, the other Nova Rangers had morphed and jumped from the Sky zord to join in with the ground battle below. With Julian remote controlling the zord and steering it home, the other Rangers fired their own jet thrusters and formed up with Martin before touching down on the city streets.

Once on the ground, the Rangers drew their blaster pistols and took cover behind an overturned bus to regroup. From their vantage point, they could see several of the surrounding buildings had been scorched with flames and blaster fire while the paved streets were torn up in places punctuated with fallen concrete debris. Despite knowing they were somewhere in the downtown area it was hard to tell with the tall buildings surrounding them. Bharata did a quick scan and turned to the Red Ranger, "Any idea where we are sir?"

Martin took a moment to gather his bearings and recall his own mental map of his hometown, "This looks like River North, an entertainment district. Michigan Avenue shouldn't be far. We can take that road south over the river into the heart of downtown and secure the city center. Follow me."

As they moved, Lucy's voice cam in over the comm link, "Rangers, I've isolated a biosignature for the Xeno ground commander. Telemetry returns show an Omega Trooper is occupying City Hall with a well entrenched force. Please advance with caution."

"Understood. Thanks Dr. B," Jake answered as he prepped his Fusion Striker in rifle mode and kept a sharp eye out for danger.

Upon reaching the main thoroughfare leading north-south, the Rangers halted in surprise as they came across a UNAF ground force pushing south. It was a mixed company of American tanks and Canadian infantry.

"Hey there! Can we get a lift?" Ella called out waving a cheerful hand as the tanks paused and the Canadians stopped to look at the Rangers up close in real life.

A middle aged man in a tanker's helmet hopped out of his vehicle and revealed himself to be a Major in the US Army. "Hey! Reinforcements! Who'd have thought they'd send us Power Rangers?"

He extended a friendly hand and gave a nod, "Major Tom Winters, 105th Cavalry Regiment from Wisconsin."

Martin shook his hand first with a relieved grin, "I'll be damned. Captain Martin Sterling of... well, here. Thanks for the help neighbors. We're headed south into the Main Loop. Think we can hitch a ride?"

Winters gave a nod and got the unit moving again as the Rangers climbed aboard a tank and continued to roll down the ravaged city streets. Major Winters kept a sharp lookout while they continued on, "We saw the enemy birds go down earlier and have been clearing streets one by one. There's a whole other allied division following behind and pushing to retake the city from the north."

"Looks like the fighting's been fierce," Erin commented as she looked around and eyed some of the bombed out shops going down what was previously a popular commercial strip.

Winters nodded, "Seems like enemy positions across the river are heavily contested. We were called up to reinforce another unit which stalled out in their push. Sounds like they took a lot of casualties."

As the unit pushed on across the bridges leading over the river, they came across a fierce skirmish raging along the edges of Millennium Park. Xeno battle drones took up positions behind trees and modern art sculptures which were strewn about the large public park and they were engaged in a firefight with UNAF soldiers. As the Canadians sprung into action and began joining in the frontline, Winters motioned toward his own men and called, "Here's our stop! Let's bring that armor forward and drive the Xenos back!"

He stopped and turned to the Rangers, "Are you guys going to be okay on your own against that field commander?"

The six activated their force shields from their morphers as Martin gave a thumbs up, "Don't worry. I know the way. We'll cut off the command head. You guys just keep doing a good job and pushing further south."

The six parted from the main allied column and split off into the ruined heart of the downtown area. After sprinting several blocks, they halted a few blocks from City Hall which was being occupied by enemy forces. Battle drones stood guard over the approaches while an Omega Trooper coordinated the movements of the battle. From such a distance, it was hard to make out, but it looked like the Xeno had several spindly structures protruding out from its back.

The Red Ranger turned to his two scouts and gave a nod, "Bara? Jake? Think you can clear us a path?"

"With pleasure sir," Jake grinned as he readied his long rifle and scrambled up some ruined concrete slabs to get the high ground.

Bharata activated the stealth feature on his morpher and faded out into a camouflage mode before moving forward to infiltrate deeper and get behind the enemy line. Once the Green Ranger had taken up his position, he quietly radioed Jake, "Have at it Massey."

Jake took aim and fired taking out one of the sentries while the rest of the team advanced forward. As other Xenos moved to respond, they were thrown off guard when Baharata suddenly appeared out of nowhere and dropped his cloaking device on the other side of the field. The Green Ranger drew his Disruptor Staff and swiftly took out enemies from behind with lightning fast speed and agility. Between being caught in the open by a sniper and the Green martial artist, the guards didn't stand a chance and were quickly routed.

"Nice job you two," Ella praised them as the team regrouped and made a beeline for their target. As they reached the edge of the damaged City Hall, Erik glanced around, "Whoah... looks like the Xenos did a number on this place."

"They'd probably be doing us a favor if they took out some of our corrupt local politicians too," Martin joked grimly before turning to confront the last Omega Trooper who stood in their way. The Xeno field commander bore a distinct resemblance to a sort of armored humanoid arachnid. Its spindly appendages from its back flexed as the warrior turned its head and clicked its mandibles together menacingly. "Come into my parlor said the spider to the Nova Rangers... I hope you don't mind some of the redecorating we've been doing here."

Erin recoiled in disgust from the biomechanical arachnid warrior, "Ugh... gross."

"I think you've got a twisted sense of artistic design," Erik retorted to the alien as he called his panzerfaust mace. "Who the hell are you?"

"They call me Tarantulus," the alien answered in a raspy scratchy voice, "You may have driven off the first wave from the air but resistance is useless Rangers. The mothership is already on its way to Earth and more of my kind will just keep coming. The Overlord and the Warmaster will make sure of it."

"Then let them come because we're taking this place back for the humans," Erin called back defiantly.

Tarantulus began to laugh before he tensed for a battle, "You Terrans really chose the wrong species to try and fight against."

"No. You chose the wrong city to invade," Martin snarled as he leveled his pistol without waiting and fired a pair of plasma bolts.

Tarantulus hissed in fury as the bolts struck him and he flew backwards to the ground. Before the Rangers could react, the Omega Trooper used its appendages to quickly scuttle along the ground and move to escape. The Rangers gave chase and followed the alien warrior into a wide open plaza behind City Hall and next to a courthouse before he scrambled up the Picasso statue of Daley Plaza and reared up with a menacing hiss. As the Rangers entered the plaza and approached, they were shocked by the sight of several terrified civilians who had been herded to one side of the square and seemingly cordoned off by an invisible rope.

The Rangers charged forward again and were suddenly surprised by seemingly invisible obstacles like the ones affecting the trapped civilians. Erik, Ella, and Jake tripped and fell to the ground while Martin, Erin, and Bharata struggled against seemingly invisible bonds which restrained them.

"What the hell is going on?" Bharata growled as he writhed and thrashed against the restraints.

"Foolish humans, you've fallen into my web," Tarantulus laughed as he reveled the stealthy trap he had laid beforehand. At his command, a latticed web of faint but resilient energy strands began to glow and show themselves strewn across the plaza to trap intruders.

Tarantulus laughed again as he connected to the web and sent a powerful surge of energy through the network. The Nova Rangers cried out as they were shocked and stunned by the powerful attack before dropping to the ground as the webbing evaporated.

"So much for the Nova Rangers," Tarantulus sniffed in contempt as he approached with a sneer, "You six were the ones who defeated so many of my brethren? You were really the ones who raided our own base and lived to tell about it? I'm finding that hard to believe."

The Xeno loomed over the stunned form of Jake and eyed him curiously with his multiple optical sensors, "Now... what shall I do with you Rangers? I imagine I can take you prisoner and deliver you to the Warmaster. No doubt, he would promote me directly to the rank of General for this."

the Xeno opened its spinnerets and began to release more webbing to quickly tie the Silver Ranger up in a secure bundle from the shoulders down. It then turned to Ella and scrabbled over toward her, "Then again... I could snack on one or two of you as well. I'm sure the Warmaster won't mind... and you do look especially scrumptious."

As Tarantulus flexed its mandibles, Erik was spurred to action and began to shake free of his stunned paralysis. The enraged German gripped his mace and threw himself hard against the arachnid warrior in a clumsy shoulder tackle, "You stay away from her you _Schweinhund!" (pig-dog)_

Tarantulus growled and struggled against the Blue Ranger while Erin rolled over slowly and drew her Nova Striker blade to cut Jake free. As soon as he threw Erik off, Tarantulus reared back its legs and revealed there were small openings for projectile weapons which it fired. Tarantulus sprayed a hail of energy bolts across the plaza forcing the Rangers to dive out of the way for cover.

As Tarantulus moved, he sprayed gouts of web at nearby buildings to swing onto them and get into better firing positions from the walls. They fought a running battle across the plaza with the Rangers returning fire from their pistols while on the move. While the others took more aggressive firing positions, Martin moved off to protect the trapped civilians with his energy shield while Erik quickly pulled an energy blade to cut them free of the special webbing. Jake gave a wave to his teammates and leveled his rifle in its special fire mode, "All right... I think it's time we washed this spider out!"

The Silver Ranger fired a spray of ricochet blaster bolts which pinned Tarantulus against a wall and kept him from moving for the moment. The arachnid warrior surprised everyone by leaping to the ground and landing amidst the Rangers before swatting them aside with a spinning leg attack. As Erin fell over, Tarantulus pounced on her and tried to bite at her with his mandibles but the Yellow Ranger countered with a backswing from her energy blade.

Tarantulus hissed and recoiled as the blade raked his mouth and damaged his face resulting in a cloud of hot oil spraying everywhere. As the monstrous warrior hobbled sideways, Ella pulled her whip and covered her friend by striking the alien and few times and then tying up a couple of its legs to hinder its movement. Tarantulus thrashed back and tried to break free before drove him back with a few more pokes of his crackling energy staff.

Ella rushed to one side of the outdoor sculpture and tied her end of the whip to it in order to anchor Tarantulus in place while Martin came to square up against the Xeno. The Red Ranger called his Nova Magnum and blasted the alien back with a well placed shot in the knees before loading a power cell into the magazine barrel. "This is it you eight legged freak. You're not going to harm anyone else today."

Tarantulus wheezed and tried to rise as the Red Ranger leveled his weapon and fired a finishing shot. The arachnid's multiple eyes went wide as a volley of six powerful red colored bolts of super-heated plasma spiraled toward him and struck with the force of a horizontal tornado. Tarantulus shrieked as he was vaporized in a massive explosion which rocked the plaza and left a large fiery crater in the pavement. The Red Ranger gave a nod of satisfaction before giving the pistol a quick twirl and holstering it. "Nice work everyone. That was a good team effort to take that sucker down."

Erik took a breather and looked around as a few UNAF troops made their way to the center of the city to join them. It looked like they had been successful as well in their battle. "It looks like the worst is over now. Sir? Shall we greet the troops?"

Martin looked about the ruined plaza for a moment before walking over to a fallen object. "One moment Erik. Old Glory comes first."

The Red Ranger bent down and picked up a fallen American flag which had been hanging in the plaza. It was dirty, singed, and tattered in a few places but he gave a gentle smile and raised it back up to where it originally hung. He gave the flag a few waves so that it could catch the wind and light encouraging the American troops who were present to give a cheer. It had been a hard fought victory and despite not having the same attachment to the stars and stripes, the other Rangers couldn't help but get caught up in the moment and give a cheer too. As the flag continued to wave, the cheers only grew louder and continued to echo across the liberated streets of the battle scarred city.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the upper atmosphere, Warmaster Hellspont watched the progress of the battles in North America from the bridge of his own warship. As he waited by the radar returns, two of his officers came to make their reports to him. The first biomechanical warrior paused and nodded, "Warmaster. The invasion forces have been driven back on the surface of the cities. It seems the Terrans found a way to down the carriers with a combination of overloading the shields and using nuclear warheads."

Hellspont smiled and waved it off, "No matter. Those are all acceptable losses. The important thing is, we've spread the Terran defense forces thin and caused them to exert a lot of effort in the defense."

"Those cities are not the objective?" the second Xeno officer asked.

Hellspont turned to his subordinate, "Did you manage to trace the movements of the Rangers and the other reinforcements from the orbital relays?"

The officer nodded, "Yes Warmaster. We believe we've traced the signals to the Terran base that they call Atlantis."

The Warmaster turned and folded his hands, "Very good. Gather the rest of our advance forces. We regroup and make for Atlantis. We're going to strike at one of the primary arteries of the UNAF and strike a final blow against the Nova Rangers.

The Xeno bridge officers nodded again and turned to their consoles as the Xeno warships changed course. Warmaster Hellspont smiled to himself and began to count down to himself. It was only a matter of time before the mothership would reach the Earth's orbit and he hoped he could offer the flaming ruins of the Rangers' precious Atlantis Base as the first major trophy to the Overlord.

* * *

Early that evening, the exhausted Rangers sat resting in the remains of a ruined bar and grill overlooking the lake. Handfuls of other allied soldiers also lounged around including an infantry squad of the Canadian Army and a group of US Marines. A couple engineers had managed to restore some power to the bombed out bar allowing for some of the neon novelty signs to light the room. Erik and Erin raided the fridge and helped themselves to a couple beer bottles that had survived the battle while Jake and Bharata struck up a conversation with the Canadians over some cigarettes.

As he stood by the open doorway looking outside, Martin watched as the dark skies began to clear slowly. His attention was pulled away as Ella came over and placed a hand on his shoulder, "Martin? Everything okay?"

"Yeah... sorry Ella. I was just lost in thought. The battle here looks to be over for now but the thought of the mothership coming still worries me."

Ella nodded quietly but gave a hopeful smile, "Listen... let's just be happy with what we've been able to do today, hmm? We've liberated your hometown and drove out the aliens without too much collateral damage. I'm assuming your family is okay?"

"I messaged them earlier," the Red Ranger nodded, "My parents are in the western suburbs and they weren't touched by the attack, thank God."

"See? Little things to be thankful for," Ella added with a supportive expression, "And a chance to look forward to good things to come tomorrow too."

Martin smiled faintly, "You know Ella, it's funny. Chrissy was always reminding me to look forward and to think ahead to the future when the war is over. I guess now is as good a time as any since the Xenos are making a full scale push to end the war one way or another."

"You thought about a future with her, didn't you?" she asked knowing the topic they were treading on was a sensitive one but he gave a calm nod.

"I did. But it also made me think about how you guys, the rest of the team would factor into that future. Christina might be gone, but if I'm honest with myself, I can't imagine a future without you Rangers either. That's why I especially appreciate all of you coming to help today. It meant a lot... so thank you."

Ella smiled and watched the evening skies begin to clear, "Martin? You mentioned you had been looking ahead toward the future and it's funny because I was doing the same thing recently. Umm... Erik and I had been talking and we kinda agreed on maybe trying to start up a relationship if and when things settle down. We know there are fraternization rules in place and we don't want to get in trouble. We're just..."

"Looking for permission from the CO?" Martin smiled in genuine amusement.

"It seemed important and we just wanted you to know," she said hesitantly.

The Red Ranger chuckled, "I'm actually not surprised. Now it makes sense why Erik got so fired up in the Xeno battle earlier today."

"So you're okay with all that?"

At that moment, Erin gave a cheer as she managed to get the jukebox in the bar working again. Another round of cheers filled the place as music began to play a jazzy blues tune performed by Eric Clapton, one that was all too familiar to a local like Martin... a song fittingly titled, "Sweet Home Chicago."

He smiled and a gave a small wink before holding out a hand, "Of course I'm okay with it, but let's just give him a little bit of a hard time right now. Join me for a dance?"

Ella laughed and joined the Red Ranger on the main floor of the bar for a dance along with a couple other male and female soldiers who had been relaxing with them. Erin nudged Erik and pointed to the floor causing the Blue Ranger to simply roll his eyes with a laugh before toasting with his beer. Admittedly, it was a little bit of a strange sight. Here were a group of men and women tired and dirty from a hard day of fighting alien invaders. They had been around fear, death, and hardship and were taking a moment of respite in a bombed out city restaurant. Despite all that, there was light, music, and laughter tonight.

For now the Xeno threat had been turned back and the weary soldiers and survivors of the battle in Chicago wanted to enjoy the little moment of victory and peace where they could take it. No doubt the battle would only get worse in the days to come, but right now it was good to feel at home and most importantly alive with friends and family all around to celebrate.

* * *

 **A/N:**  
 **The 105th Cavalry Regiment is in fact a real life Army National Guard unit from Wisconsin, so hats off to those guys.**

 **We've got two more major battles coming up and the end of the series in sight. Hang in there everyone, we're gonna be in for a bumpy ride. Thanks for reading!**


	37. Siege

**Mission 29: Part 1  
**

The next morning, the Nova Rangers were recalled back to their home in Atlantis Base. They were encouraged by the news that the attacks on the other North American cities had been fended off albeit at great cost. UNAF forces had been spread thin, millions of people had been displaced, and several of the cities themselves had sustained severe amounts of damage requiring years' worth of rebuilding.

Despite those facts, the Rangers returned home encouraged after their victory in Chicago. As they rematerialized on the transit platform of the base's transport room, they were met by the grim face of General Caldwell who was already waiting to greet them. The Rangers stepped off the platform and gave quick salutes in greeting as Martin led the way, "General, is everything okay?"

"I'm afraid not Captain," Caldwell replied waving them along, "Rangers, if you'll come with me?"

Everyone exchanged hesitant looks and quietly followed Caldwell down the hallways to one of the base's other private conference rooms. It wasn't as large or grand as his office in the Command Tower, but at the moment Caldwell didn't care. As the Rangers gathered around, he brought up a holographic projector display and gestured to several blips on the radar, "I wish I could greet you in a more positive way everyone. I followed your last battle and was pleased by the results, but if the Xenos are regrouping then we have to as well."

"We were kinda surprised to hear they had fallen back," Erin noted as she crossed her arms thoughtfully, "I actually thought they were going to dig in and put up a lot more of a fight."

Caldwell nodded and pointed to the projector screen, "I did too but I have reason to believe that occupying those cities was not the main intent. Right now, our space fleet is still locked in a struggle with the alien armada and barely holding the line. The ships that did get through and attacked our cities moved off to regroup into a large force themselves."

"Maybe it was some kind of diversionary attack? Or a draw play of some kind?" Bharata chimed in curiously as he studied the enemy ship markers, "Where are the Xenos headed?"

Caldwell traced the projected route of the ships directly to a familiar point in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, "It would seem the Xeno forces are on a direct course for Atlantis Base. Estimated time to arrival is hovering at about 12 hours."

The Rangers sat stunned at the revelation. Was it even possible that the Xenos were going to launch a direct attack on their home base? During all this time, Atlantis was the one place where they had felt safe and able to relax between the horrors and trauma of the war they were fighting. Now all that was suddenly in danger of being taken away. It had almost been unthinkable that the base would come under attack, but with this sizeable force bearing down toward them, it was looking more and more uncertain that they would even escape unharmed.

Erik paused a moment before frowning, "If the aliens who are planetside are going to bring all their force to bear here, can't we call in a lot of help too?"

Caldwell grimaced, "That might be difficult Captain Dobermann. The Xenos have outmaneuvered us on this one. We'll do our best to transport in as many extra defenders as we can, but UNAF forces have been spread out and exhausted in the fighting that just took place in the other cities. When the Xenos draw close, we won't be able to call in any more help using the orbital relays as our base's shields will have to be raised."

Everyone fell silent again and let that sink in as they continued to watch the Xeno forces move slowly closer toward their position. Jake cleared his throat, "We're not going to have a lot of time. We need to start preparing our defenses now."

Caldwell nodded, "Once this meeting is over, I'm going to signal a red alert on this base. I want the six of you to make ready and prepare to make a stand here."

"If Captain Austin were here, he'd probably say something like Remember the Alamo," Martin said ruefully before turning to the team, "All right Rangers, first thing's first. We stop this assault on Atlantis Base and then we'll figure out what to do about that mothership. General, do we know how close it is to Earth?"

"Long range telemetry's been hampered by the space battle going on above the planet. Our best guess is that the mothership is at least another day away."

The Red Ranger nodded slowly and made a fist, "All right then. Let's get work. We've got to make sure we roll out the welcome mat for our Xeno guests in twelve hours."

* * *

Later that day, the base went into high alert status and personnel scrambled to secure supplies, computer systems, and weapons platforms. As civilians cleared out from the peripheral regions like the West End, garrisoned soldiers and military personnel went to work fortifying positions and preparing all the base's weapon systems: from anti-aircraft guns, sea based torpedoes, cruise missiles, and heavy turbo cannons mounted on some of the larger buildings.

Meanwhile, the base's scientists worked to boost power to the weapons and shields along with refining the targeting systems and communication functions for the defenders. In the R&D lab, a manic fearful atmosphere gripped the air while the science division feverishly worked on their new projects in relative quiet. In one corner of the lab, Erin and Julian were working together on some diagnostics while Lucy Beckett stood hunched over her worktable laboring away over one more device. After a while, she stopped to take a breath and remove her glasses while rubbing her eyes.

At that moment, she heard the lab doors swish open and Martin entered. He wore a concerned look on his face and neared the table, "Lucy? I came as soon as you called. Is everything okay?"

The scientist greeted him tiredly and composed herself again before gesturing to the device which was sitting on the table, "Yes. I called you here because this is very important and I feel it might come in handy in the coming battles."

He stopped and looked at the device sitting before him. It was small and somewhat circular, able to fit the palm of one's hand. It had a digital display in the center and was ringed by alien script, presumably derived from Adventi. The device had a few buttons and looked like it might have been some kind of holo-projector or maybe a communicator even. The Red Ranger studied it curiously, "Uh... what is it?"

Lucy put her hands over his and closed it around the device, "This is our ace in the hole. I call it the Nebula Driver. It's something I cobbled together from some Adventi schematics and it should be able to temporarily magnify the power of a Nova morpher... at least in theory."

"I don't understand. What is this to be used for?"

Lucy looked him right in the eye with a serious expression, "When you Rangers went up against Warmaster Hellspont, you guys were outclassed by his weapons and armor. This final enhancement might just be the edge you need if you're going to defeat him or go up against that mothership later. Think of it as a last ditch option because I haven't had enough time to test it or make sure it's safe."

"You really think this thing can work?" Martin asked hesitantly before he felt Lucy squeeze his hand.

"I can only hope. I designed it to resonate with your morpher's unique energy signature. You're the most experienced Ranger we've got and I figured if anything bad were to happen, you would want to shoulder the risk first and protect your team."

He smiled faintly and squeezed her hand back, "You know me all too well Luce. Thank you."

The two shared another quiet lingering smile before Erik cut in over the radio, "Captain? We need your help to set up fortifications in the southwestern concourse. Do you have a minute?"

The Red Ranger sighed and answered the call before beckoning to Erin and heading out the door, "Roger that Erik. I'm on my way."

* * *

Time passed and as the hours ticked by, a mounting tension began to fall over the whole of the floating base. By now, the civilian scientists and support staff had taken up refuge in heart of the base's underground shelters while the military personnel took charge above ground. Weapon emplacements were all manned, fighter pilots were ready to scramble at a moment's notice, and marines were posted at strategic chokepoints to meet a possible ground assault.

General Caldwell, Lucy, Julian and a group of bridge officers had all taken up their posts in the Operations station of the Command Tower. Meanwhile, the Rangers stood by in the transport room watching as the last reinforcements that could be mustered were beamed over through the relay system. Lt. Reyes who now headed Jeffery Austin's STAR team was present along with a few more squads of the elite commando unit. Off to the side, Jake Massey fidgeted restlessly and lit a cigarette, before he began to idly smoke it.

Nearby, Lt. Clarissa Lewis looked over from where she was doing a quick inspection of her squad and marched over to Jake. "Jake Massey, what do you think you're doing?"

"What does it look like, luv? I'm smoking a cigarette," he replied calmly, "When the Xenos come, who knows when I'll be able to enjoy another one?"

Clarissa sighed, You really shouldn't be doing that in here sergeant. Captain Dobermann? Are you going to stop him?"

The Blue Ranger glanced to Jake and gave a shrug, "Nah. We're going to be shutting down the transporter soon anyway. Once the base shields go up, it's not going to matter."

Much to Clarissa's consternation, her second in command Corporal James Campbell ambled over and addressed Jake, "Hey Sarge, you think you can spare me a smoke too?"

While the Silver Ranger offered James a cigarette, the last of the reinforcements beamed in. To everyone's shock, they saw the familiar face of Taldyr on the platform along with a fully armed platoon of former clone shock troops. While the male and female clones wore their original battle armor and carried their old weapons, their armor bore a dark blue painted trim to match the uniforms of the UNAF troops and show their new allegiance to the Earth forces. Taldyr headed down the platform and broke out into a smile as he was greeted warmly by Erin and Bharata.

"Tal! I wasn't expecting to see you here," Erin exclaimed in surprise, "I thought you and your people would still be helping rebuild in Israel."

Taldyr shook her hand and nodded, "In any other case, we would be Erin Reilly. Despite the recent loss of life there, many of us decided to offer our help in your time of need... to repay your kindness in helping resettle our people."

"We appreciate the help Tal. Thank you," Bharata smiled as Taldyr walked with them and led his troops.

"I was given word of this development from General Caldwell. If the Warmaster intends to fight a decisive battle here, then it's only right we free clones make our stand here too and fight against him. Is your Captain present? I wanted to offer my condolences when I heard he lost a loved one in Haifa."

"He'll be by soon enough," Erin explained, "He's meeting with Caldwell and other senior officers to prepare for the battle, but I'm sure he'll appreciate your kind words."

Taldyr nodded, "Until then, tell me where you need us and my troops will be ready to fight for Atlantis. I understand time grows short."

Erin checked her wristwatch and grimaced before gesturing to their alien allies, "All right then. Come with me. I'll find you some spots to cover during the battle."

* * *

More time passed and a grim quiet settled in over Atlantis Base. To anyone on the outside, they would think that the only sound one could hear was the pounding of the ocean waves outside. Late afternoon had rolled around and some ominous banks of dark clouds had appeared over the horizon. As if they were reading the atmosphere just right, a large cloud Xeno Machina skyships appeared at range and began to descend from air. Despite being remnants from the North American battles and missing their super carriers, the small armada was still a formidable threat now that it had combined into a focused attack.

Enemy cruisers and frigates loomed over the ocean waves as Strigon fighters sortied out to harry the base defenses and prepare air cover for their own landing craft. As the Xenos neared the base, the final alarm sounded and the base defenses went up. Armored bulkheads sealed entryways while a large energy shield was raised over the entirety of the city base. The Nova Rangers took up positions on the balcony of central base and watched in dread as the invaders came ever closer.

They could hear the chatter of their fellow comrades manning artillery positions along with fearful shouts as the alien ships opened up with the first volley of blaster fire on the base. There was a loud rumble and vibrations as the shots struck the energy shields of Atlantis Base and dissipated harmlessly before the defenders heard Caldwell's voice on the radio to all the soldiers there, "All defenders, take your positions and return fire!"

Moments later, the guns of Atlantis Base opened up and filled the air with rockets and energy bolts. The Rangers braced themselves as the base fighters scrambled and the fire on both sides intensified. The sounds of Xeno energy weapons could be heard as the barrage of fire hammered at base's shields and lit up the air around the skyline. As enemy Strigons screamed overhead, trails of railgun fire sprayed after them, shredding some of the fighters and chasing away others.

Despite the clouds of blaster fire and missile pods flying back and forth, the Xeno ships continued to bear down ever closer as the base defenders dug in and kept up their withering counterattack. Trails of smoke and fire streaked from the heavens while the waves underneath the floating city began to churn violently. For now, the Nova Rangers could only stand by and watch in awe at the sheer firepower being thrown back and forth. Up in the Command Tower, General Caldwell issued orders to the crews in charge of coordinating the base's guns and shield systems. He spoke in short direct bursts that showed the older commander was still calm and poised, but also very forceful and decisive. He kept his eyes on the battlemap and determined he would sooner pick up a blaster and die then to let his base and the people under his command fall to the Xenos.

"Direct railguns to concentrate fire in Sector 3! Ready Archer missile pods in Bank 7 to focus on that cruiser to the east. Full spread, dispersal pattern Sierra!"

Lucy, Julian, and all the other operations officers in the tower busily manned their posts and followed the General's orders as the shields around the tower continued to rumble from the relentless barrage. Lucy looked up from her station and moved aside her headset in growing fear, "General, air defenses in Sector 5 are getting overwhelmed. Shields are failing there."

The Tower shook again and Caldwell scowled at the tactical display before grimacing, "Reroute emergency power to the deflectors there. Signal our ground forces to stand by for possible landing parties."

* * *

Soon enough, the Rangers and their allies gathered along the approaches toward the West End. Because the quadrant of the base served as more of a civilian center, it was naturally less defended and an easier target for the enemy to advance on. By now, the outer shields had been worn away and a few stray cannon blasts had broken through destroying some of the commercial and residential buildings there. Flames began to grow as plumes of black smoke rose into the air unsettling the base's defenders. The Rangers, the STARs, and their clone allies waited and watched as they saw several large landing craft descend from the cruisers. The transports offloaded large crowds of Xeno soldiers who began to swarm the area. The hostile clone troops and battle drones surged forward like a wave of locusts and engaged the ground forces in a fierce firefight.

Taldyr gave a call to his troops and led them against the enemy clones while the UNAF troops met the battle drones. Searing lasbolts filled the air and tore up the streets while the sounds of RPGs and plasma based weaponry echoed between buildings. The Nova Rangers witnessed the onslaught as the UNAF defenders valiantly stood their ground and ducked behind their fortifications which were hammered by the invaders. Martin signaled his team forward and reached for his morpher, "Come on everyone. Our allies need us. We've got to get in there!"

The others nodded in reply and raised their own morphers, transforming in unison, " _Energize_!"

The six heroes emerged in a wall of prismatic light before charging forward with weapons drawn to help beat back the alien invaders. As the air battle raged above them with the shadows of Xeno cruisers looming, the Rangers and their allies went toe to toe with the alien ground troops on the ruined streets. Erik smashed aside enemy clones two at a time with his mace weapon while Erin and Ella carved a path forward with their energy blades. Bharata covered the other flank and beat back battle drones with his electrified Disruptor Staff while deflecting any stray bolts that came close. In the center of the press, Jake covered Martin by sniping enemy clones who slipped through with near point blank shots of his Fusion Striker rifle. Beside him, Martin rallied the UNAF center and struck down any other battle drones who broke through with a plasma blade in one hand and and blaster pistol in the other.

The chaotic melee continued to rage as the base's defenses took down several Xeno airships, but it didn't seem to matter. Enemy ground units kept coming and the base's shields continued to weaken under the vicious bombardment. Despite the Rangers' efforts, defenders in other sectors were pushed back to their second and third lines of defense as bodies of enemy aliens and human soldiers began to mount. A few gun and missile banks slackened fire as their positions were threatened and overrun. The tops of several nearby buildings along with a barracks exploded in a cloud of flames as the Rangers fell back to a rampart in the central district along with their allies.

"Come on everyone! Reload! Stand your ground!" Clarissa Lewis called trying to rally her team as Bharata carried one of her wounded teammates Marina LeFevour who had taken a glancing blaster shot to the side. Taldyr fell back with his own clone allies while a team of STARs covered the retreat to the defensive position. Once behind the barriers, the defenders looked to the tired Nova Rangers for support as the six faced down the fresh wave of enemy reinforcements.

"This is not looking good Captain," Erin said as she readied her Sonic Cannon, "The Xenos don't look like they're going to quit."

"Then neither will we," the Red Ranger panted as he gripped his plasma blade, "We hold here and don't give those bastards an inch! Is that understood?"

Before the others could answer, they saw a large alien cruiser descend on what seemed to be a collision course for the Command Tower. The Rangers gasped in horror as a barrage of the base's defenses tore into the ship but it was not enough. The ship kept coming. From his vantage point, General Caldwell stared in wide eyed shock at the incoming vessel before shouting to everyone present, "Everyone! Get out of here now! Abandon your posts!"

Julian was paralyzed in horror as Lucy tried to pull him from his seat. As the other operations officers fled from the top of the tower, Lucy called to Caldwell, "General!"

"Get out of here Beckett! That's an order!"

Lucy watched the incoming Xeno ship hurtle down on them before pulling Julian along and rushing over to Caldwell. She swiftly grabbed Caldwell's arm and reached for a device in her labcoat, "Sir, you're coming with me whether you like it or not."

She pressed the button on the device just as the warship plowed into the top of the Command Tower and obliterated the Operations room. A deafening crash was heard as the ship crashed through the tower and plowed into the grounds of the central district nearby. The force of the suicidal attack shook the base to its core and left the human defenders in a state of demoralized shock and awe. The Yellow Ranger screamed in terror and fury at the sight calling for Julian before trying to run toward the ruins of the crumbling Command Tower. Erik reached out and forcefully restrained her as Martin stared in silence. If that ship had just taken out the Tower with Julian, then General Caldwell and Lucy had to have been there too. He clenched a gloved fist unsure whether to feel overwhelming despair, sadness, or fury.

He had a job to do and that was to lead the rest of the base defenders. As long as the Rangers stayed alive and kept fighting, then so would the hope and the fighting spirit of their comrades. Jake shook his own head from the shocking sight before turning his eyes toward the head of the crashed vessel before pointing, "Everyone... look! Out there!"

The Rangers stopped and turned to slowly look out toward the wreckage before they spotted a large familiar figure making his way from the smoke and fire. A Xeno warrior in dark powered armor plodded forward casting a menacing silhouette in the nearby fires. The Xeno troops stood down and parted as Warmaster Hellspont emerged to approach the Rangers by himself. The field commander of the alien armies stopped a short distance away and stood between the two sides addressing his enemies, "Rangers... this ends today. Your precious base is in ruins. Your friends are dead, and your forces here are outclassed. I'm offering you one last chance... lay down your arms and surrender to me."

The six Rangers slowly stepped forward and gathered their strength for this decisive battle against the general. The Red Ranger confronted his hated enemy and stared him down across the battlefield, "You wasted your time coming all this way to tell us that Warmaster. I think we all know what the answer is going to be. We're done talking. you've killed enough people and ruined enough lives on this planet so do yourself a favor. Take all your troops on your ship, leave this rock, and go fly right to hell because that's where we're going to send you anyway."

"I'm going to enjoy killing you for good this time Red Ranger," Hellspont laughed as he ignited his energy blade.

The six Rangers regrouped together and reached for their morphers. In a flash, they all went Supernova and the battle commenced.


	38. To the Death

**Mission 29: Part 2  
**

Both sides watched in awe as contrails of jet thrusters trailed in the air while the six Supernova Rangers surged forward at the Warmaster for a final decisive battle. This time, all the Rangers engaged the general with their plasma swords and struck glancing blows against Hellspont as they passed by like a storm. Clouds of sparks flew from each strike and Hellspont growled as the Rangers regrouped and hovered in midair before streaking forward again like a horde of angry bees. This time, the Warmaster used his heavy armored forearms to sweep aside a few strikes while using his own energy blade to counter a dual slash from Martin and Erik.

He pushed the two Rangers aside just in time to see Jake buzz in low with his own Fusion Striker and thrust his blade into the Xeno's leg. The blade found an opening in the joint plating and was able to penetrate slightly causing some damage. Hellspont snarled and batted the Silver Ranger aside. He turned just in time to be hit from the other flank by a barrage of blaster fire from Ella, Erin, and Bharata who had drawn their ranged weapons. The Warmaster staggered back a moment allowing the three to switch to their personal weapons and press the attack. Erin fired a concussive burst of soundwaves while Ella lashed out with her whip to restrain the arm of the general.

Hellspont growled as his arm was snared but he whipped his arm in the opposite direction surprising Ella. The force of the counter motion pulled the Pink Ranger into Erin causing the two girls to collide. Nearby, Bharata used his staff to pole-vault over the counter motion of the whip and bring his plasma blade down on the Warmaster's helmet. It scored a gash across the helmet but only enraged the general further as he sent the Green Ranger flying backwards into the girls with a punishing slash from his energy blade. Before the three could rise, the Warmaster converted one of his cybernetic arm attachments into a powerful blaster which fired an explosive blast right in front of the ground they stood on.

By now, Erik had recovered and moved in for a flank attack. He pulled his panzerfaust mace and struck several furious blows against Hellspont's cuirass in revenge which echoed with ringing sounds of steel. The Warmaster recoiled slightly from the powerful strikes before planting his feet and grabbing the weapon during its next swing. Erik grunted and kicked his foot out to hurt Hellspont some more in his wounded knee and cause more damage. The general roared in pain and lashed out knocking the Blue Ranger aside before tossing the mace away and causing it explode some distance away. The Xeno gave a snort of contempt and turned his head to confront the Red Ranger who was now standing before him with his Nova Magnum readied. "Can't you see it's hopeless, boy? Your little toy pistol is not going to be powerful enough to stop me."

"Maybe not, but it's going to be enough to slow you down," Martin answered firing several shots followed by its Red Spiral finisher. Hellspont raised his guard again and took the blaster bolts followed by the powerful explosion of the spiraling attack. What he didn't expect to see was the Red Ranger charge through the blast while clipping a small device onto his morpher before pressing a button.

Lucy's Nebula Driver activated and caused the morpher to erupt into a brilliant cloud of white and red and light. Just as Lucy had intended, the surge of energy gave off the appearance of the real astronomical event known as a Luminous Red Nova caused by the merging of two stars. The Warmaster recoiled amid the white nimbus of light and raised his hands to shield his eyes from the dazzling twinkle of blue lights afterward. In place of the original Nova Ranger, Martin's battle suit had changed into an even more impressive and armored version with red and white coloration. The morpher pulsed with energy and seemed to give off a buzzing halo around the Ranger while the glare reflected off his visor.

"What do you think you're doing Ranger?"

"Putting an end to all this," Martin answered as he surged forward with speed and power surpassing even that of the Supernova mode. He moved like a blur and hammered his enemy with a flurry of vicious punches. Hellspont staggered and winced in pain as the force of the supercharged Ranger began to wear on him, denting his armor and causing sparks to fly from each blow. As he took a brutal tornado kick and fell to the ground, Hellspont grabbed his fallen energy blade and looked to see the Ranger pause a moment too.

Because of the experimental and unrefined nature of the Nebula Driver, Martin recoiled as several surges of loose energy suddenly staggered him and caused him to seize up in pain from the electrical shocks. He growled and fought through it just as the Warmaster brought the plasma blade to bear on him and he managed to evade just in time. The Red Nova Ranger ducked around the slash in a blur and twisted the blade out of his foe's hand. In a reversal move, Martin used the Warmaster's own blade to slash a gaping hole into the chest of Hellspont's power armor and send him flying backwards in a cloud of fire and sparks.

Once clear, the other Nova Rangers regrouped around their commander and caught their breath seeing the Warmaster had been knocked down and seemingly wounded. Erik turned to the others, "I think it's time to put this guy away for good. What do you think?"

Everyone got into position and called on their Prism Cannon together. As Hellspont focused his ire on the Rangers, he saw them load the cannon and aim it directly at him. He sneered as he called upon one of his last cybernetic enhancements to start creating a force-field around him, "Not yet Rangers. I won't let you defeat me so easily."

The Nova Rangers pulled the trigger on their weapon and let loose a concentrated beam of ionized energy at their foe. To their shock, the beam ran up against Hellspont's force shield and seemingly stopped for a moment before being scattered in all directions. The resulting explosion swept across the battlefield and blew out the glass windows of nearby buildings as the sheer force shattered the Warmaster's shield while engulfing the Rangers in a fiery blast as well.

UNAF troops and Xeno soldiers alike watched and waited in tense silence as the shockwave passed over them and the cloud of smoke and fire began to dissipate. It was uncertain of such a focused close range blast had taken out the Warmaster, the Rangers, or possibly both.

* * *

Up above, the air battle over Atlantis Base had taken a dramatic turn as some UNAF forces arrived to assist their besieged comrades. A new Polaris class space cruiser armed with Adventi upgrades descended from the clouds flanked by two frigates to surprise the remaining Xeno warships hovering above. Before the alien ships could react and scramble, the Terran cruiser opened up with several powerful bursts of its ion beam weapons which punched through several Xeno vessels at a time. In a matter of minutes, the air battle became a rout as several of the unprepared alien craft had exploded or sunk into the nearby oceans bleeding gouts of smoke and fire from holes that the ion cannons punched through their hulls.

Back on the ground, the smoke of the scorched battlefield swirled around him as Martin came to and slowly picked himself up from the ground. His whole body ached terribly and his head was swimming while stars flooded his vision. He could see the visor of his helmet was cracked in several places and he had been powered back down to his standard Ranger battlesuit. Even that suit was looking a little worse for wear at the moment with several bad scorches and scuffs. He grunted and saw Hellspont staggering to his knees some distance away. The Warmaster looked to be just as exhausted and damaged. If this fight was going to be won, it was going to be one of attrition now.

Martin crawled over to where the Prism Cannon lay on the ground and he began to heft it up by himself in order to bring it to bear on the Xeno commander. In the fog of battle and haze of half delirium, he could feel a slight trickle of blood go down his own brow. He couldn't see or hear any signs of life from his fellow Rangers. Maybe some of the sensors in his helmet were damaged, but he didn't read any bio signs of his teammates. Only blank static.

It was in that moment that a strange sense of déjà vu seemed to grip him. This was becoming all too similar to his very first battle against Hellspont. Here he was again on a scorched battlefield, alone, injured and staring down his same enemy. Right now, the Red Ranger couldn't worry about the possibility that the rest of his friends might also be dead too. He had done everything he could to prevent them from suffering the same fate as the original Alpha Rangers… but this time, it was different. This was his team and those five Rangers were people had grown to love more than anything. If this was going to be it, then Martin wanted to be sure he would at least take their murderer down too, even if that meant sacrificing his life in the process.

As he staggered to a crouching position with the cannon, he heard a crackling come in over his comm followed by a familiar voice, "Martin… are you still there?"

His heart stopped a moment, "Lucy? I… is that you? You're alive? I saw the tower…"

"Fall? Yes," she answered from the safety of her lab. Dr. Beckett glanced over to a shaken looking Julian and General Caldwell who were also standing with her as she palmed a small device in her hand, "I decided it might be a good idea to keep a personal short range transporter on hand. Julian and General Caldwell are safe in my lab with me."

The Red Ranger grunted and activated a quick recharge sequence on the Prism Cannon as Hellspont continued to stagger to his footing as well. Fortunately the Warmaster's wounded knee was slowing him down. "I could use a little help right now. The Warmaster is right in my sights and I need one more shot for the cannon."

"The other Rangers?"

"Gone... but I owe it to them," the Red Ranger answered as he struggled to lift the cannon by himself and prop it up, "Please… hurry."

Lucy nodded to Julian as he quickly recovered one last energy canister from the lab and transported it over. "You've got one last short Martin. Make it count."

"Roger that."

As he loaded the cannon and prepared to take aim, he looked up in dread as Hellspont had already recovered to his feet and sneered with a triumphant grin. He converted a weapon attachment on his arm into an energy cannon and aimed it at the Ranger. The Warmaster overcharged the cannon and fired a last desperate attack, expending all of his reserve power for one last lethal attack. The pavement was torn asunder and the ground rattled as the overpowering surge of energy raced forward. As the Red Ranger gasped and heard Lucy shout his name, he recoiled and raised a feeble arm to shield himself when he saw a blinding light and felt the ground rattle around him. Instead of searing pain and instant death sweeping over him, he blinked and saw that he was still very much alive.

To his shock, a large figure in a blue battle suit stood in the path of the surging storm of energy with a morpher shield raised. "Erik?"

The Blue Ranger struggled to hold back the devastating storm of energy with his shield before he turned his head slightly and grunted with a smile behind his visor, "You didn't think we'd all just die and leave you here alone, did you?"

Martin stammered in awe as Erik was quickly joined by Ella, Erin, and Bharata who all stumbled over from the fog and raised their shields to assist Erik in holding off Hellspont's attack. All four gritted their teeth and dug in their heels as they pushed back against the brilliant surging ball of energy which thundered against their shields. As they stood their ground, Martin was shocked as Jake and Taldyr hurried over and knelt beside him to help aim and steady the cannon for a clearer shot. With help from Jake's targeting systems, a clearer line of fire began to form through the interference of Hellspont's attack centered right on the ruined spot of the Warmaster's power armor.

As the crosshairs lined up and a target lock was achieved, Martin pulled the trigger and a brilliant beam of energy erupted from the Prism Cannon. It overpowered the edge of Hellspont's energy attack and swept it aside before racing on a direct course for the Warmaster. In a flash, the thundering beam of searing energy struck the general full on and blasted a large hole clean through his torso. As the beam gave out, the Xeno general wore a shocked look and let out a rasping scream as he toppled to his knees and exploded into a large fiery cloud of machinery and gore. The violent destruction of their field commander was so sudden and shocking that the remaining alien forces on the ground paused and froze in place.

Without having a source of centralized control, the battle drones all deactivated and locked up, unable to think for themselves. The remaining enemy clone troops all looked around and saw that their position had quickly deteriorated. Not only were they outgunned and surrounded, but they were confused at the idea of being able to act on their own free will for the first time.

Taldyr spotted the hesitation and raised his hands in a placating gesture while stepping forward, "It's going to be all right! Brothers! Sisters! Lay down your arms and surrender and I promise the Terrans will not harm you."

The enemy clones looked to one another in hesitation before slowly lowering their weapons and raising their hands in surrender. While several UNAF marines kept their rifles trained on the prisoners, they relaxed their stances a little more and let a series of cheers wash over them from the rear ranks.

While the foot soldiers on both sides sorted things out with one another, the Nova Rangers powered down and exchanged weary smiles amidst the smoke, the rubble, and the destruction around them. Without saying anything, all six gathered and exchanged relieved hugs with each other, grateful to have emerged victorious and alive after such a frightful ordeal. While they were joined by other celebrating soldiers from the base, Bharata laughed and took a cigarette to celebrate with Jake while Erik and Ella snuck a quick kiss between each other while no one was looking.

After exchanging a relieved hug with Erin and letting her go, Martin placed his hands on her shoulders and gave a gentle smile, "You might want to try those comms again Lieutenant. I think Julian would want to hear you're okay."

Her eyes went wide and she abruptly turned around reaching for her morpher, "Julian? Are you there?"

She was overcome with relief as she heard her boyfriend's voice on the other end of the line and she began to wander off chattering in a delirious stupor at having survived such a terrible battle. The Red Ranger watched her depart with a smile before looking up to the clearing skies. With the destruction of the invasion forces, one looming obstacle remained. The Xeno mothership was still on its way and though Atlantis Base had been bloodied, its figurative head remained far from unbowed.

Right now, the sight of sunlight and the calm blue skies above were a welcome sight. For now, the base was at peace, just like the souls of all who had been lost at the hands of the ruthless Xeno general that the Rangers had just vanquished. Most importantly was the fact that the team was still together and ready to face their final battle together. His thoughts were drawn away from the skies as he felt Jake suddenly give a nudge and offer a cigarette, "Fancy a smoke there Captain? Seeing as how what's left of the Warmaster is smoking too."

Martin laughed and threw an arm over his comrade's shoulder as he took the smoke and let the Silver Ranger light it. While the Rangers continued to celebrate with the rest of the exhausted base defenders, General Caldwell made his way outside from the central base's R&D lab with Lucy and Julian. As they walked the hallways, they saw the central base had taken a few hits from the bombardment. Ceiling panels had fallen in some places while other light fixtures and bulkheads had been blown out. The three made their way though the central atrium where much of the glass dome overhead had been shattered and lay in shards along the floors. If it hadn't been for surviving an alien siege, the scene of such devastation would have been heartbreaking.

After exiting the wreckage of the central base, they heard the sounds of cheering soldiers along with the other scientists and civilians who were now leaving the safety of their shelters. Caldwell gave a smile to the two young engineers and nodded his head, "Go on ahead. I'll be with you shortly."

Lucy and Julian headed off to find their Ranger friends as Caldwell surveyed the ruins on his base and its central command post. He gave a sigh and looked to the now waning sunlight in the skies above. The war was not yet over, but they were one battle away from total victory or complete extinction. For now, he'd let the Rangers have their moment of peace. Come tomorrow morning, Marcus Caldwell had a sinking feeling that he would have to send his Rangers on on the most dangerous mission of their lives... and possibly their last.

* * *

 **A/N:**  
 **Whew! So we've got just a couple more chapters left to go. As per usual, I'll call a short pause here to reload and do some editing so that the final mission and the series ending is high quality too. Besides, all of you readers deserve that much for sticking with this marathon story for this long. Stay tuned and thanks again!**


	39. Zero Hour

**Mission 30: Part 1  
**

After a night of guarded celebrations, the battered and exhausted defenders of Atlantis Base retired to the relative safety of the floating city's South and East quadrants. Makeshift living quarters and medical units were set up to accommodate the displaced personnel and treat the wounded from the battle. Despite the Terran victory over the Xeno assault, they had paid dearly. Hundreds of soldiers had been wounded and killed. The majority of the North and West Ends had been devastated and the central district with the base's barracks and command posts lay in ruin.

Still, it didn't deter the humans and their allies from staying active and working to remain prepared for another battle. After a long sleep and some cold showers, the six Rangers gathered to eat a modest breakfast of MREs from storage. With many of the base's mess halls and civilian facilities destroyed, the Rangers had to resort to the approach of their training exercises by eating field rations.

The six sat together in a makeshift building of the South End eating some dried fruit, granola bars, and juice while idly watching a nearby television which someone had managed to set up. As the others chatted with each other, Jake Massey shook around the contents of a food packet before turning to Ella beside him, "Hey Catalano. I can't tell what this mush is... oatmeal maybe? The instructions said just add hot water."

The Pink Ranger eyed the contents and shrugged, "Beats me. Are you gonna eat it?"

"It would be a shame if I lived thorough a battle with a Xeno general only to die from eating an MRE," Jake sighed poking at it with a spoon.

"I promise I'd give the eulogy and make you still sound heroic," Ella laughed while giving him an elbow.

Before Jake could eat, he paused when he heard an uproar coming from nearby. Several base personnel had gotten up and began gathering around the television calling other people over. The Rangers stopped their breakfast and pushed through a few people to try and get a view of the television. They paused when they saw a familiar face on the screen giving a report from BBC World News. The reporter Nigel Moseby was speaking from a helicopter as it hovered over the ocean and circled around a smoldering disaster zone. The thing that made everyone's blood run cold was the fact that the apparent report was not about Atlantis Base, but rather its sister outpost in the Indian Ocean.

"Once again this is Nigel Moseby of BBC News reporting from the Indian Ocean. If you're just tuning in, there's been a tragedy at the site of the UNAF outpost of Garuda Base. Initial reports confirm an intense beam of concentrated energy had been fired from high orbit around planet Earth. The beam weapon struck the base and completely obliterated it."

Grainy footage was shown of a pillar of light coming down from the skies and striking Garuda Base before it erupted into a colossal fireball. The shot changed to current camera footage of the scorched ruins of the large floating base which continued to billow smoke and flames from its dying smoldering towers.

"We're still gathering information right now but the estimated death toll is in the thousands. It's speculated by some experts that the Xeno mothership may be responsible for this attack after the recent invasions of several North American cities and another UNAF base in the Atlantic Ocean..."

As Nigel continued to report, a panicked murmur swept through all the onlookers. If the alien mothership had arrived and was hovering in orbit, it might have caused that devastating attack. With Atlantis Base in its current weakened condition, there would be no way it could defend itself from a similar attack. They were effectively sitting ducks. Ella covered her mouth for a moment, "Oh God... someone please tell me that this is fake news."

Erik felt his heart skip a few beats in terror before swallowing hard and looking to his commander, "Sir?"

His question was answered as their morphers sounded with a call from General Caldwell, "Rangers? Are you watching the breaking news reports right now?"

"Yes General... I'm afraid we are," Martin answered grimly as he did his best to try and keep his own voice steady.

"I need you Rangers to drop what you're doing and report to me immediately. I've taken up a new office in the East End near the shipyards," Caldwell said solemnly, "Please don't delay."

"Understood sir. We're on our way," the Red Ranger replied as he gestured for his team to move and headed out of the makeshift cafeteria.

* * *

A short time later, the Nova Rangers reached their destination in the East End by the shipyards. They followed an adjutant to one of the large harbor offices that had been repurposed for use by General Caldwell. He sat waiting behind a smaller oak desk along with Lucy and Julian who had taken seats on a nearby couch. The Rangers all came to a halt and gave a quick salute before forming into a line and standing at attention.

Caldwell nodded and rose from his chair. The older gray man looked weary and exhausted after the stresses of the last several days. It was unusual to see the old kindly general with such a hard somber expression for long periods of time, but given the extraordinary events that had been playing out recently, it was easy to forgive. "Rangers... I'm sure by now you've heard about what happened at Garuda Base earlier today?"

Everyone remained quiet and nodded feeling fear, dread, and heartbreak for all their fellow UNAF comrades who had likely perished in the attack. Caldwell folded his hands, "I'm not going to sugarcoat anything. This was a terrible blow to the UN military's strength and our morale."

He picked up a stack of papers, "I've received word earlier today that the Xeno mothership has reached the edge of Earth's orbit. The rest of the Xeno fleet has scattered but the majority of our orbital guns and space fleet has been crippled in the fighting as well. It is nowhere near enough to stand against that mothership."

"Was it responsible for the attack on Garuda Base, sir?" Erin asked.

Lucy nodded and interjected as she stood up, "I'm afraid so Lieutenant Reilly. Long range telemetry shows that an intense energy buildup and discharge came from the mothership. It seems that the Xeno vessel has a sort of high powered fusion cannon which is most effective at its current range."

"If you don't mind me asking... what's stopping it from finishing us off here?" Bharata asked nervously.

Lucy adjusted her glasses, "It appears that the fusion cannon requires an incredible amount of time and power to charge. I can only estimate that it would take another twelve hours to be ready to fire again."

"That doesn't leave us much time," Erik noted, "Do you know where the weapon is located on the Xeno ship... or maybe where its power source is?"

Lucy nodded gesturing to the new displays on screen of the mothership, "Yes. I've traced the energy signature as best I could to a point near the heart of the ship. If we're going to disable that cannon, we have to get in close there."

Jake scratched his head, "Well, why can't we just load a ship full of nuclear warheads and send it on a kamikaze run right into the mothership?"

Lucy grimaced, "You have been on board the mothership before Jake. It's colossal. Considering it's armor and shields, I'd guess all we'd do is cripple it again."

Caldwell nodded, "During the first space battle, my good friend Captain Hood already sacrificed himself and his ship to simply inconvenience the Xenos."

"All right, so we've got a Death Star scenario here," Erik muttered earning glares from his teammates.

"Well when you put it like that..." Ella began to chide him but Martin raised a hand to silence all of them. He turned to Caldwell with a solemn expression.

"General, I have a feeling I know what you want us to do. How do you plan for us to attack that power source?"

Caldwell pressed a small buzzer on the office desk signaling for someone else to enter. The Rangers turned to see an early middle aged Asian woman wearing the uniform of the UNAF space fleet. By the looks of her insignia pins, she was a ship captain. She stopped and gave a salute to Caldwell before standing at attention, "Reporting for duty General."

Caldwell nodded, "Rangers, this is Captain Miranda Lau. She had served as the First Officer on the starship _Exeter_ under the command of my friend Captain Arthur Hood. Since then, she's been promoted and is now the captain of one of our Polaris class cruisers, the starship _Trafalgar_... the same one who came to help in our battle here."

The Rangers turned in surprise while Captain Lau gave a smile, "I'm glad I could help General. It seems we could use every hand on deck now."

"Indeed," Caldwell said as he gestured to some new images on the view screen, "Rangers, we're going to try and get you into the mothership. We plan to launch a small force of vessels against the mothership to draw its fire. You will take the Sky zord and make for the open hangars of the enemy ship when it launches its fighters."

"This is insane," Erin said, "I assume we'll have to fight our way to the heart of the ship from there?"

Caldwell grimaced, "I know it isn't the best plan Erin, but it's the only one we've got. I hate to sign off on it and I know the odds of survival are not good at all..."

"But we knew the job of being Rangers was dangerous when we took it," Martin interjected trying to keep everyone's spirits up, "After all, we did survive our first raid on the mothership."

The other Rangers straightened up and tried to put on brave faces while Lucy and Julian looked visibly ill. Caldwell sighed and sat back down behind his desk.

"Very well. Rangers, start preparing for this last operation and coordinate your plans with Captain Lau. Make ready to launch in nine hours and not a minute later. Dismissed."

* * *

Later that day, evening had begun to fall over Atlantis Base and Erik Dobermann Jr. sat in one of the remaining hangers of the North End. He and the other Rangers were going to be heading off soon to board Captain Lau's cruiser and fly into orbit. He had donned his full combat dress with flak jacket, helmet, and accouterments and the last thing he held in his hand was a datapad. As he sat on a crate, he stared blankly at the screen and tried his best to come up with words to prepare a final letter home just in case the worst happened. Like many other active duty soldiers, he had prepared one long ago but this time he felt that it should be a little more personal and updated.

He took several moments to gather his thoughts before taking a deep breath and turning on the video recording function. "Hi Sarah. It's Papa. I uh... I wanted to let you know that I'm going to be heading out on an important mission very soon. The people at the top tell me it might be very dangerous but I don't want you to worry too much. I promise I'll do everything I can to come home and see you soon. If everything goes well, the war might be over and we can be together again. But if something bad happens, I just wanted to let you know that I promise you'll be okay and that I love you very much."

"I know this isn't exactly the path you had in mind for me, but I want to let you know that I'm proud of what I'm doing," Erin said into her own datapad while recording her own message, "I'm hoping when all this is over, I can come back home for a while and sort this out. I admit, I know I've kind of been the difficult daughter in the family but I'm happy here. I've been through a lot of dangerous and difficult situations, but it's made me a lot stronger and better than I ever thought I could be. I've become great friends with my teammates, I have a boyfriend, and I have opportunities to put my skills to use in helping humanity. I just don't want you and Dad to worry too much or to feel too sad if something were to happen to me."

"You had taught me that the most important thing is to persevere... that the power of the mind and force of will can overcome anything. It's what got me this far and for that, I am forever grateful to you Mentor," Bharata continued in his own digital letter to his teacher Basuki, "You had taught me to accept situations as they are and to deal with them with a clear mind... but as much as I hate to admit it, I'm afraid... more afraid than I've been before. I wish that you were here to offer me some final advice. Still, I'm asking that you keep your faith in me and my team because I want to come home. There's so much left I have to say..."

"And so much left I want to do," Ella continued in her own recorded letter, "I want to go on a vacation with you and Dad. I want to stop in to Rome to see my Zia and my Nonna so that I can do more cooking with them. I want to introduce all of you to Erik because I think you'll all like him. I'm sure Nonna will still be a little hesitant about everything, but I know she'll come around. Most of all, I want to live on so that I could do all the things my sister Lucia wasn't able to do before her passing. I want to live for her too. I know how worried you two must be since I'm your only child now..."

"But we've made it through this far, right?" Jake said as he recorded his own message while smoking a cigarette, "Dad, I know you understand this so I hope you can reassure Mum. The rational part of me wants to do everything in my power to keep from going on this mission, but I can't because my team needs me. When I had lost my old section in the battle of London several years ago, I wished I had died with them because I felt I let them down. I've grown to love this squad too and I don't want to let them down too. I know I often joke around a lot to hide how I really feel, but I'm very serious about this right now. I uh... just wanted to let you know that I'm proud to do my duty to my team, to my country, and to you two. I love you both and I hope to see you soon. Cheers."

" _Ciao_."

" _Selamat tinggal_."

" _Slan_."

" _Auf Wiedershen_."

"Good bye," Martin said as he turned off the video recorder of his own datapad and made his way to an administrative office in order to deliver his last letter to his parents back home. After dropping off his datapad, he walked back across the facilities to the hanger bays. He stopped and waited alone in the empty hanger feeling the chill of the autumn air coming in. He checked his wristwatch and sighed. Once his squad arrived, there would a jeep arriving soon to drive them out to the loading platform of the cruiser on the airfield. As he waited, he heard footsteps coming from behind before his name was called.

He turned in surprise to see Lucy approach quickly. With her lab mostly out of commission and having nothing important to do, she had dressed down to some casual civilian clothes: dark jeans and a snug white turtleneck. She wore a troubled look and nearly gasped, "Martin, there you are! I was worried I wouldn't be able to catch you before you left."

"It's okay Luce. I was just waiting for the others. If you want to wait with me..."

"Actually, I wanted a chance to say goodbye to you myself," Lucy said coming over to bury her face in her friend's shoulder, "I've been worried sick ever since Caldwell's briefing this morning and... well, I just hate having to do this all over again. I know you Rangers are doing this to protect Atlantis Base, but I can't bear the thought of you guys flying right into this kind of danger. I'm sorry..."

Martin put his arms around Lucy and held her a moment trying to reassure her, "Don't apologize Lucy. We all have our weak moments. You know we have to do this because if we didn't... I don't know if I'd be able to forgive myself if something happened to you or the rest of the people here."

"Now you know how I feel Martin," Lucy said quietly, "Every time you go out into battle, I fear I may never see you again. Whenever I'm sitting at my station in Ops, I always say a few prayers for your squad. Maybe it's selfish of me, but I always pray for your safe return first."

The Red Ranger remained silent for a long moment before smiling gently, "Thank you. I'm truly blessed to have such a special friend in you."

"Is that all I am? Just a special friend?" she said looking up with an emotionally charged expression.

"Lucy, I..."

She placed a finger to his lips and silenced him, "Please Martin, just don't say anything right now. Let me speak? I want you to know that you're not just a special friend to me. You're so much more than that. I'm sorry if it took me this long to realize that and come to terms with how I feel, but I just had to say something now. I know it's too soon after Chrissy's passing and you probably need more time to move on... but, please understand I couldn't forgive myself if I didn't tell you that I loved you either."

There was a long pause and they looked to one another before Lucy shifted nervously, "Please... say something?"

To her surprise, Martin leaned down and rested his forehead and nose to hers, "I love you too Lucy, and thank you. Thank you for telling me. Maybe when this whole war is over, we can figure this whole thing out like we always have... together."

"You mean that? You'll come back?" she asked hesitantly.

"I'm making a promise now and I don't intend to break it," he answered before leaning down and gently pressing his lips to hers. The two stood for a long moment holding each other and sharing a soulful kiss before letting go. As they parted, the other Rangers entered the hanger while the transport jeep drove up right on time. Having been unaware of everything, Erik gave a surprised look and waved, "Dr. Beckett! Hi! We didn't expect to see you here!"

She cleared her throat and stepped back regaining her composure. With a soft smile she nodded, "I... I just wanted to see your team off and wish you luck Captain. Please, end this war and bring us peace."

The other Rangers nodded with guarded smiles as they waved goodbye to her and boarded the jeep. The driver, a young marine corporal paused for a moment and turned to the Red Ranger who hadn't gotten on yet, "Captain Sterling? It's time to go, sir."

He nodded reluctantly and turned to give one last salute to Lucy before getting on board with his team and driving away from the hanger. In the near distance of the airfield, the Rangers could see the cruiser _Trafalgar_ looming from the darkness as it finished its loading and preparations for battle. While they neared, no one said anything. They had said everything they needed to say to their loved ones. Right now, there was a war to end and a planet to save.


	40. Counterstrike

**Mission 30: Part 2  
**

The cruiser _Trafalgar_ took off from the airfields of Atlantis Base and fired its powerful engines to accelerate higher into the atmosphere. For a powerful new class of spaceship, it wouldn't be long before it returned to orbit above the Earth and regroup with what was left of the UNAF space fleet. After breaking through the atmosphere, the _Trafalgar_ sped along towards the other side of the planet where the Xeno Machina mothership had established its own high orbit.

Captain Miranda Lau stood calmly on the bridge and watched as her vessel was joined by several smaller frigates along with two of the _Trafalgar_ 's sister cruisers, the _Odyssey_ and the _Columbia_. Her tactical officer called over, "Captain, the _Odyssey_ and _Columbia_ are signaling ready. ETA to the enemy mothership in 10 minutes."

Captain Lau nodded and narrowed her eyes, focusing on an orbital display of the approaching battlefield. She had been aboard the _Exeter_ in the first major space battle and witnessed the courage of her commander Captain Hood. She wanted to make him proud and exact some measure of vengeance for his loss. She just hoped doing so wouldn't resort to her having to pull the same tactics.

"Helmsman, full ahead forward. Adjust course heading to seven, seven, three, mark four. I want all weapon systems charged and shields raised."

As her crew hurried to secure their systems and take up battle stations, Captain Lau sat waiting and watching as the colossal form of the alien mothership came into view over the orbital horizon. Amid the glare of the sun's light, the crews of the Terran space fleet saw the behemoth enemy ship floating in a threatening position to continue its devastating bombardment of the planet. First it would destroy the major UNAF bases and then it would likely start targeting cities hoping that it would force the terrified humans to finally submit.

As the UNAF space fleet neared, Captain Lau rose from her chair as one of her bridge officers called out, "Ma'am, the enemy has spotted us. The Xeno ship is charging weapons and raising defenses."

"Prepare for battle maneuvers. Flank speed," the captain said forcefully, "Signal our fleet to attack."

The bridge broke out into a chatter which sounded like controlled chaos while Captain Lau reached for her own controls, "Ready torpedoes and beam weapons to focus fire on the motherships power relays. Fix railguns on the enemy fighters when they sortie out. Commence firing!"

The small UNAF fleet opened up with a blistering volley of spacial torpedoes and ion beams which hammered at the massive alien ship's outer defenses. The mothership changed position slightly and began to return fire while both sides deployed fighter craft to skirmish with one another. Another fierce melee began to erupt over the planet as the fleet made its valiant push to confront its larger Xeno oppressor.

* * *

Inside one of the large docking bays of the _Trafalgar_ , the Sky zord sat at a state of readiness for the operation with the six Nova Rangers on board. They felt the entire cruiser shake and rumble from a few hits while they nervously waited to be launched. Erik cracked his knuckles and turned to Martin who sat gripping the steering controls of the zord with white knuckles, "You're a little on edge too, huh?"

"I hate not being in control during an air battle," the Red Ranger grimaced, "We're sitting ducks. At least if I get blown out of the sky, I know it's my own fault."

"No one is going to get blown out of the skies… or space… or whatever," Ella chided him with a frown. "Positive thinking everyone."

Meanwhile, Bharata sat strapping into his seat when he caught a whiff of something odd and sniffed the air again. It was a faint sweet smell and the Green Ranger raised an eyebrow as he turned to Jake nearby. "Jake, are you wearing perfume?"

Jake waved it off and reached quickly into his flak jacket, "Oh! No Bara, you've got it all wrong. This is where it's coming from."

The Silver Ranger produced a small envelope he had tucked into his vest, likely for good luck or protection of some sort, "Clarissa gave this to me before we left."

"You mean Lieutenant Lewis," Erin corrected him with a mild poke in the shoulder.

Jake shrugged, "Whatever, I can't help it if she wanted to give me a love letter before going. Hell, she broke regulations and kissed me right there too and she's the one who outranks me, remember?"

Erin sighed and continued strapping into her seat's harnesses, "Geez, the base gets attacked and suddenly the whole place starts turning into a college dormitory."

Bharata started laughing but their banter was interrupted as a voice cut in over the comms. It was Captain Lau. "Rangers, we've engaged the mothership. We're almost in range for you to launch. Be advised, it's pretty hot out there and there's a lot of traffic."

"Understood Captain. Standing by," Martin nodded as he powered up the zord. Moments later, the hanger bay doors slowly began to open as the docking clamps released. He turned to his team, "All right. This is it everyone. Ella, I need you to get our electronic defense field ready. Erik, keep directing as much power as you can to our engines and forward shields. Jake, you're on weapons. Bara, keep our nav point locked on the mothership."

Erin spoke up, "Captain? What about me? What do you want me to do?"

The Red Ranger thought for a moment, "You're a practicing Catholic, right? Maybe say a few Hail Mary's for us?"

At that moment, the hanger doors opened and the engines of the Sky zord flared to life as it streaked away from the embattled _Trafalgar_ and joined the chaotic melee outside. Everyone held tight and sunk into their seats as the zord roared into the battle and wove its way through a storm of enemy fire and buzzing fighter craft. Ella gripped her laptop which was plugged in to the main console and hit a few buttons to activate an ECM field in hopes it would make the Ranger's ship a lot harder to target and lock onto from enemy weapons. Meanwhile, Jake gritted his teeth and did his best to try and fire a few blaster shots at enemy fighters while the zord rolled and swung around in wide evasive arcs.

From her seat, Erin gripped on to the harnesses with her eyes closed seemingly fixed in a steady chant of prayer, "Holy Mary mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death, Amen..."

Just ahead of her in the seat order, Erik covered his mouth for a moment as the zord rolled and pulled another sharp evasive maneuver, "Oh God… I think I'm going to be sick."

Amid the storm of fire from both sides, the Sky zord powered through a few hits and roared across the battlefield nearing the mothership. Bharata kept the nav computers locked on target while a few of the mothership's missile banks missed the zord thanks to Ella's disruptor field. "We're almost there! The hangers are in sight!"

The zord angled in and made a steep banking turn toward one of the large open hangar bays which Bahrata had targeted. As the zord thundered forward, several more fighters were launched and headed directly into a head on collision with the Rangers. Jake gasped and grabbed the firing controls spraying a cloud of weapons fire at the Stigons shredding them to pieces just as they left their docking port. A pair of missiles that Jake fired also flew inside the hangar and blew up a docking control station with several battle drones as the zord hit the retro rockets and crash landed into the hangar. The zord plowed through a couple Xenos on the main floor before sliding and skidding to a halt.

The utter chaos and confusion caused by the unexpected landing allowed the Rangers a chance to regroup and drop the hatch of their zord before rushing out with their weapons drawn. For now, they'd conserve power and fought as regular unmorphed soldiers unloading controlled bursts of laser fire from their assault rifles. After a quick firefight, the six secured the hanger and gathered at the hatch leading further into the mothership. They had done this before but it hadn't made the experience any less terrifying.

Erin moved first and hacked the controls to the hatch allowing the team access toward the inner decks of the ship. The Green Ranger took a look around to see that the coast was clear, "All right, what's the plan?"

Martin locked and loaded his rifle, "We follow the energy signature to the fusion cannon's power source. If anything gets in the way, shoot it."

"Right… same as always then," Jake grinned earning a tense chuckle from the rest of the team.

The scouts Jake and Bharata began to lead the way as the team swiftly hurried down the corridors. Ella kept a small hand computer handy to track the power source that Lucy had provided for them. While Erik guarded the rear, Martin and Erin kept Ella covered as they pushed forward. Here and there they would come across a sentry or a worker drone and the Rangers made short work of them. Right now, they had to hurry so shooting first and showing no mercy was the accepted game plan. After storming their way through several chambers and delving deeper into the ship, the Rangers neared a large concourse leading directly to central decks of the mothership.

By now, crowds of Xeno Machina warriors began to converge and concentrate a hail of blaster fire on the Rangers' position. Scorched bulkheads rained showers of sparks and melted steel as the Rangers ducked behind cover trying to figure out a way forward. They were likely getting close to something important as several larger battle droids deployed out toting high powered energy cannons and gattling blasters.

Damn! We're getting pinned down here!" Jake shouted as he tried to fire back a few times and took out an enemy clone soldier with a headshot.

Bharata grimaced as he reloaded his rifle and winced as a shot clipped the metal bars above his head, "We can't maneuver through that fire… unless we pulled the rug out from under those Xenos…"

"Bara! You're a genius!" Erin smiled as she snapped her fingers. She turned to Martin, "Captain, if we can temporarily cut the gravity to this room, we might be able to surprise the Xenos and get clear enough to strike back."

The Red Ranger turned to Ella, "Catalano, think you can make that happen?"

Ella looked to a nearby computer panel in the room and nodded, "I think so. I'll need a couple minutes."

She took out a small device and plugged in while her comrades rose to crouching positions and laid down a field of covering fire to slow down the aliens. Ella worked furiously to hack into the local systems and manipulate the code. Amid the storm of fire, Bharata shouted, "Any time now Ella!"

"Got it!" the Pink Ranger shouted as she hit the Enter key, "Everyone grab on to something!"

The Rangers did as she said and grabbed on to nearby pipes and fixtures as the artificial gravity generators in that section of the ship temporarily deactivated. The startled Xenos immediately ceased their firing and looked in surprise as they suddenly became weightless and floated up into the air spinning awkwardly. Ella waited and watched for a several moments before hitting her devise again and causing the Xeno soldiers to crash back to the ground in stunned heaps.

Seeing their opportunity, the Rangers regained their footing and moved to strike. Bharata pulled several grenades from his belt and hurled them at the downed Xenos, "Incoming!"

Seconds later, the explosives went off causing even more chaos and confusion while outright killing dozens of drones and clone troops. As the Xeno guardians tried to rise and retake their defensive positions, they were caught out in the open and mowed down by the rest of the Rangers' furious assault. The six pushed forward and finished off the Xeno stragglers in the room before regrouping to take a breath.

Erik fired one last las bolt into a battle drone that was still twitching on the ground and paused to load a fresh power pack into his rifle, "All right Ella, how much further?"

Ella checked her scanner and led the way down a wide corridor before stopping at some large bulkhead doors, "We're close. If I'm reading this right, it shouldn't be too far beyond these doors. Problem is, the security locks look like they're heavily encrypted."

"Leave that to me," Erin smiled as she took the lead and took out a device of her own and plugged it into a wall jack. She took a minute or two to use her translation device to sort through the Xeno security script and decode it. One by one, the locks opened and the security lights went green. As the large doors opened, two large wall mounted guns on the other side powered down and allowed safe passage for the raiders. Martin patted Erin on the shoulder and stepped forward to lead the way, "Whew... nice work there Erin."

The six Rangers pressed forward into a large central chamber which looked like a massive nuclear reactor core. In the center of the room was a titanic humanoid figure whose torso was seemingly fused into the pipes and the rest of the ship itself. Nearby were several boxed rows of cybernetic heads affixed to the titan by cables and cords. The faces and mouths of the heads twitched and moved in different intervals giving the amalgamation of biomechanical components a horrific appearance. Ella glanced her scanner and pointed, "That looks like the power source."

"What the hell is that monstrosity?" Jake gulped in fear.

As the Rangers hesitantly approached, they jumped in fright as the giant figure stirred and opened its cybernetic eyes to focus in on them. In a deep rumbling multi-toned voice, it said, "I've been waiting for you Nova Rangers."

"Who are you? How do you know us?" Erik called out in a challenge, even though he felt pure terror seize his heart.

The titan began to laugh, "Foolish human. I know all. I am all. Ages ago, I was once called Phaeton. Now I am a god... the Overlord of the Xeno Machina race. I know all about you six. Martin Sterling, Erik Dobermann Jr., Bharata Timothy, Erin Reilly, Ella Catalano, and Jake Massey. You are the champions of your world, the ones who continue to oppose me and stand in the way of your race's progress."

"Progress? You mean enslavement!" Bharata countered forcefully, "We've seen the way your kind has killed and destroyed. You don't want peace! You are nothing like the Adventi!"

"The Adventi," the Overlord growled angrily causing the room to shake, "Those cowards fled our original homeworld. They are traitors who left us to die... but we survived. We adapted and became strong... letting technology become one with our weaker organic selves. Don't you see? We are are here to make your human race better than it is. Let us purge the taint of the Adventi technology from your world and allow yourselves to become one with us."

Martin shook his head, "No. Whatever your conflict is with the Adventi, that was ages ago. We have no part in your old war and we want nothing to do with it either. We've defeated your warriors and your armies. We've killed your Warmaster and broken through your fleet. What is it going to take to show you that planet Earth is not going to surrender? We don't have to fight anymore. Just leave us alone!"

The Overlord began to laugh again, "That I cannot do Ranger. Your race has caused great offense to us but it's also succeeded in resisting me the longest. I will take great joy in forcing you to submit. Once humanity is assimilated, it will be the newest and greatest asset to our collective, a resilient and resourceful race of people to fight for us. With your species's potential for savagery and greatness, I have no doubt we can surely conquer the rest of the galaxy."

"You're absolutely mad!" Erin exclaimed in horror, "What makes you think we're going to surrender?"

"In less than an hour, this vessel's fusion cannon is going to fire again and destroy the place you call Atlantis Base," the Overlord said, "I will destroy your bases and your cities one by one unless you surrender."

"That's not going to happen," Martin answered as he reached for his morpher and was joined by the other Rangers, "You're not going to fire that cannon. We're going to destroy you first and end this war for good."

"Then try to finish it," the Overlord roared as its massive arms dislodged from some nearby sockets. The entire ship seemed to creak and rumble as the leader of the entire Xeno Machina race stirred to life and readied for a confrontation.

The six human Rangers braced themselves and grabbed their morphers in unison. In a flash of prismatic light, the six friends emerged armed and ready for the greatest battle of their lives, " _Energize_!"

* * *

 **A/N:**  
 **To answer the Guest review question in the last chapter, I promise I'll turn my focus to Advent Horizon after this series concludes and I apologize for putting it off. I usually like to focus on one major project at a time and this fic has been my longest most ambitious one yet.**

 **There's only a few chapters left here so hopefully I'll be able to update Advent sometime in the first two weeks of October. Thanks again for the question and support!  
**


	41. War of the Worlds

**Mission 30: Part 3  
**

The six Rangers scattered and tumbled away as the Overlord brought its great hand around and unleashed a wave of tendril like fingers made of thick electrically charged cords. As the floor was scorched with energy, the six rolled clear and went Supernova just as their Xeno foe brandished several energy cannons from its torso and began to fire. The Rangers fired their jets and flew clear in evasive aerial maneuvers to avoid the blaster fire all while dodging more swings from the titan's hands. The Overlord gave a half laugh as it swiveled about on its axis to threaten all 360 degrees of the room, "It's useless to resist you little insects! You cannot stop me!"

Amid the chaotic storm of blaster fire, the Rangers all activated their morpher shields to help protect themselves and deflect a few bolts while regrouping. Erick turned aside another blaster bolt and grunted toward the others, "Okay… we're in it really deep right now."

"How are we going to get through all that?" Jake added as he readied his Fusion Striker, "The Overlord is like a giant rotating weapon emplacement. We can't even get close."

Martin growled and brandished his pistol while bracing himself under his own shield, "We'll split up and draw his fire. Jake, Bara, you're with me. Erik, you and the girls sweep around and try to find a place to strike."

The six split off into two teams and jetted away as the Overlord brought its massive hand down to slam that corner of the chamber. While Erik and the two girls sped around the far side of the massive core of the ship, Martin, Bharata, and Jake pulled out their blaster weapons and fired a hail of searing energy bolts at the titan's face. While the blaster fire did little to actually harm the Overlord, it was enough to distract it allowing the other Rangers to fly free.

As they sped around to the far side, the three Rangers used their helmet scanners to look for unusual readings and energy spikes. The pulled their energy blades and landed on the back of the Overlord's giant neck before plunging them in. Despite the hot searing force of the blades, they were stopped by a powerful force shield. Although the Overlord's shield melted away slowly, it didn't seem to be doing any significant damage either. As they continued to try and tear through the protection, the giant monstrosity opened several hatches at its base and deployed a swarm of robotic drones. The flying machines sped upward and regrouped, firing searing beams of energy to try and harry the Rangers while chasing them away from their perch.

Erik and Erin raised their shields just in time to block the beams but the force of the shots knocked them off. As they bore down on Ella the Pink Ranger recoiled in dread before several of the drones were shot down by a hail of covering fire from her other allies. Martin swooped through firing shots from his Magnum while Jake let loose a volley of his special ricochet shots to destroy several drones at once. Ella gasped as the Overlord reached around and swatted at its neck but the Pink Ranger flew away just in time to avoid the strike.

As Bharata batted another drone out of the air with his Disruptor Staff, he rejoined the others in midair, "Any luck?"

Erin shook her head, "No. We can't find any clear spots to attack… and we're running out of time!"

Displayed within the visors of each of the Rangers' helmets was an estimated countdown to the firing time of the fusion cannon. At present, it read less than seven minutes left. As the fusion cannon in the mothership began to charge further, Bharata scanned again and noticed some unusual energy fluctuations. Because his helmet had the most detailed scanners, he often took advantage of his Intelligence training to pinpoint vulnerabilities in the enemies. "Everyone, I'm reading some unstable energy spikes coming from the Overlord. It must have something to do with the ship's primary cannon!"

Everyone dove away as their titanic foe lashed out again and raked the room with its deadly finger tendrils and blaster fire from its torso mounted turrets. Ella frowned and thought furiously as she did some scans of her own. "If the Overlord is the power source for the ship and its weapon, then the cannon must be drawing a crap ton of power away. We can use that to our advantage."

The Rangers zig zagged evasively through some more blaster fire and tangled with a fresh wave of drone fliers. "If you've got an idea luv, let us know… in simple terms please."

Ella slashed away a drone and looked to the others, "If the Overlord is anything like a true computer, it's going to be using a lot of resources to battle us and power the cannon at the same time. If we can force it to process harder, we might be able to cause something to blow out, or overheat."

A few metallic scaffolds overhead were shredded by blaster fire and collapsed nearby the Rangers. Erin shoved aside some debris and jetted away from an electrical tendril strike, "It's worth a shot. We can't keep playing defense forever!"

Martin cocked his Magnum pistol and surveyed the battlefield, "All right… force shields require a lot of power to operate. I say we hammer the Xeno with energy weapons and try to overload the shields that way."

Before the Rangers could prepare for their new attack, the Overlord used a new tactic of its own and utilized its electrically charged hands to ionize the air with supercharged energy. The attack worked like a bug zapper and momentarily stunned the hovering Rangers causing them to fall back to the floor. As they tried to rise, the Overlord fixed its blaster turrets on them and blew them back against the walls with a volley of energy bolts. The sheer force of the brutal attack instantly caused the six Rangers to lose their Supernova forms and revert back to their regular battle suits.

Without wasting an opportunity, the Overlord laughed and reached out grabbing all the Rangers with its large hands. It began to squeeze and shock them at the same time with its electrical charges causing the heroes great pain. As their bodies flared with agonizing pain, the bio-sensors within their Ranger suits began to sound shrill warnings indicating critical levels of danger to their very lives. The Overlord let up its torture for a moment to examine its victims, unwilling to outright kill some truly valuable human specimens. "You have amused me Nova Rangers, but now your resistance ends. I will take your broken flesh and make it perfect again. You fear death while I offer you immortality but the great work must continue until you are one in me."

"Let's make that one in death!"

Martin struggled and freed his arms just enough to recover Lucy's Nebula Driver from his belt and clip it on to his morpher. In a flash, he activated it and surged with a cloud of renewed energy that blasted the Overlord's massive hand apart while severing several fingers. The titan roared in pain and dropped the other Rangers as it clutched its damaged appendage. The large chamber rumbled as the Overlord's booming voice thundered, "You worthless human! How dare you!"

The other Rangers regrouped in a daze as they gathered around the Red Ranger. "Everyone! Are you okay?"

Erik grunted and took a moment to steady himself, "We're still alive, but we're almost out of time!"

The ambient power continued to build up as the Overlord made ready to attack again and use its remaining good hand. As it reached out, the Rangers drew their own energy weapons and fired back together. The combined sustained force of the Nova Magnum, Fusion Striker, plasma pistols along with Erin's sonic cannon blew a large hole in the other hand of the Overlord disabled it.

Bharata glanced at the timer as it read a countdown of less than two minutes, "We've got to hurry!"

Martin leveled his weapon at the giant Xeno, "Don't let up! Now's our chance!"

The Rangers fired their weapons in a withering stream causing the Overlord to raise its own force shields. As the force barrier began to buckle and power runoff surged around the chambers, the Rangers called in their heaviest weapons, among them the Prism Cannon. The Red Ranger loaded a charged barrel in his Magnum pistol and the other five readied and aimed the cannon for an overcharged suicide attack. The Overlord's eyes blazed in fury and it readied its shields before the six Rangers let loose with everything their weapons had left. The ion beam from the cannon combined with a concentrated stream of fire from the Red Ranger's pistol and thundered against the Xeno's defenses.

More energy began to run off and the room buzzed with dangerous levels of power as the Rangers' weapons threatened to overheat themselves. By now, it had become a sheer battle of will and attrition as the Overlord struggled to divide power between the ship's fusion cannon and its own defenses. Finally, the shield began to buckle and fold in on the Overlord as the massive energy feedback started to overwhelm its own systems.

The self declared god of the Xeno Machina race screamed in fury as the combined attacks of the Rangers blew out several systems and caused massive feedback loops through the ship's circuitry. Steam and smoke began to pour from the joints of the Overlord as the smaller cybernetic heads housed within its torso began to blow out like lightbulbs. The violent surges continued to rack the Overlord and damage internal systems causing it to thrash and convulse violently. The Nova Rangers let up their fire as their weapons burned out and they moved clear of the suffering Overlord.

The timer continued to run down from fifteen seconds as the Overlord's eyes began to pour smoke and its joints erupted into more clouds of sparks and circuitry, "No! This can't be happening to me! I am immortal!"

The exhausted Rangers felt their suits power down and give out while they backed away further. The fearful Rangers held on to each other as the timer ran out and one last major power surge went through the room. The mothership shook violently and a loud explosion was heard as the six friends were knocked clean off their feet. The mothership seemed to lurch sideways as several secondary explosions erupted and another major misfire rocked the vessel's superstructure to its core. Unknown to the Rangers, their feedback had caused a massive power surge which fried the firing mechanisms of the fusion cannon.

Erik groaned and shook his head as he leaned against a nearby wall with the other Rangers piled around him. Erin was gripping him fearfully with her head buried in his shoulder and her eyes closed. He gave a mild sigh, "Erin… we're still alive. You can let go of me now."

"Do I have to?" she asked before Ella gave a mildly annoyed huff and pulled her off.

"Yes!"

Martin ignored the squad's quibbling while hesitantly reaching for his morpher, "This is Captain Sterling to the _Trafalgar_ … uh, what the hell just happened?"

Outside from the bridge of the starship _Trafalgar_ , Captain Miranda Lau watched in wide eyed shock as the entire front of the Xeno mothership was engulfed in fire. The front third of the ship had completely exploded leaving a shredded mangled mess of flames and metal. The mortally wounded mothership seemed to list while debris and flailing Xeno warriors were sucked out into the resulting vacuum of space.

"We might have to ask you the same thing Captain Sterling… the entire bow of the mothership's been obliterated. We thought maybe you Rangers died in the blast."

"We just took out the Overlord and might have caused a power surge within the ship's core. Did that fusion cannon fire? Is Atlantis safe?"

Lau nodded, "It looks like you caused the Xenos to misfire their weapon and they blew themselves up. Earth is safe, but the fleet here's a little worse for wear."

She glanced over and saw the remnants of the Xeno space forces retreating and scrambling away as their mothership continued to immolate itself. The remaining battered ships of the UNAF space fleet pulled back to a safe distance and stood on guard waiting and watching while the scene unfolded, "Captain, you and your Rangers have to get out of there now. We're picking up unstable power surges through the mothership and we're reading massive damage to the superstructure."

"Understood. We're going to make a run for it," the Red Ranger answered before cutting off the comm. Before he could give any further orders, the Rangers stopped and heard a dreadful creaking sound. They turned in fear to see the gigantic ruined torso of the Overlord stir and prop itself up slightly. The husks of the entity's eyes glowed slightly as its fingers twitched and a distorted voice came from its mouth.

"You think you've won Nova Rangers… but this is not the end. I will destroy you yet."

"It's over!" Erik called out, "We've defeated you. Your body and your vessel is in ruins. The war is over."

"Yes. The war is over... for all of us," the Overlord rasped with a sardonic chuckle, "If the Xeno Machina die here, then I will make sure the human race dies with us too. As we speak, I'm steering this ship into your planet. When this fiery vessel strikes one of your continents, it will cause an extinction level event. Millions will die and Earth will be shrouded in darkness."

The Nova Rangers stood agape in silent horror as the Overlord began to laugh again before its systems finally failed. The titan's eyes burned out and its body went limp marking the final death of the Machine Overlord. A few more explosions rocked the mothership and caused it to sway snapping the Rangers from their stupor.

"Come on team, let's get a move on!" Jake called while giving a wave. "That Sky zord isn't going to fly itself you know."

* * *

The six exhausted Rangers stripped off their heavy flak vests and gear which weighed them down and they moved as fast as their legs could carry them to safety. They snaked their way back through the corridors and navigated around the flaming ruins of the central concourse. Several Xeno worker drones shuffled about aimlessly and walked right past the Rangers without paying them any mind. Without their Overlord, the drones lacked any purpose and let the intruders pass through unmolested. A few bulkheads collapsed and a steel ceiling girder fell nearby as the Rangers escaped the wreckage and made their way back to the hangers. Despite having survived perilous odds and feeling the crushing weight of all their struggles and injuries catching up to them, the six heroes pushed through toward their waiting zord with a single minded purpose. Their battle was not quite finished. Earth was not yet safe and the war was not yet over.

They boarded up the rear ramp and sealed the zord before strapping in. Martin took up the helm and powered the engines while maneuvering around the flaming ruins of the hanger. All around them, molten wreckage and ceiling beams continued to collapse and punch through the decks below adding to what was quickly becoming a hellish inferno. As the engines finally powered on and the zord hovered off the deck, Martin punched the throttle toward the open doors, "All right… let's get the hell out of here."

The Rangers braced themselves and were pushed back into their seats as the zord thundered forward. It burst from the hanger bays and streaked out into clear open space allowing the Rangers to gasp in momentary relief while putting some distance between themselves and the sinking mothership. "This is Nova 1 to starship _Trafalgar_. We have cleared the mothership."

"Understood," Captain Lau answered with a hint of relief in her voice, "I'm glad to hear it Rangers. It's finally over."

"I'm afraid not Captain," Erin chimed in over the radio, "Before the Overlord died, it changed course and is trying to crash the remains of the ship into Earth. We've got to do something!"

Captain Lau blinked in shock and horror as she continued to watch the crippled mothership turn and lose some altitude from its high orbital plane. She gripped the armrests of her chair and sat silent for a moment while her bridge crew shared in her dread. "I… understand. Rangers… I don't think I have to spell out what will happen if that massive ship crashes into the surface of the planet at its current velocity. If you've got any ideas on what to do, I'm open to suggestions."

"Roger that _Trafalgar_. Stand by," Martin said muting the comms. He then turned to his team, "Okay Rangers… this is it. We've got to take down that monster here and now. Failure is not an option. Can I count on you guys just one more time?"

"We're with you all the way Captain," Erik smiled placing a firm hand on his shoulder.

"Always," Ella added.

"To the bitter end," Erin agreed while Bharata closed a fist in solidarity.

"For planet Earth."

The Red Ranger nodded and maneuvered into a pursuit heading behind the dying mothership. Jake raised an eyebrow, "Do you have a plan, sir?"

Martin shook his head, "No, but I know someone who might. We'll ask the oldest most experienced Air Force commander we know."

He reached for the comms and sent out a call on an emergency channel, "This is the Red Nova Ranger of the UNAF. I need to speak with General Marcus Caldwell immediately!"


	42. Terra Ascendant

**Mission 30: Part 4  
**

General Marcus Caldwell held his datapad screen steady as his shaky signal was relayed directly to the Nova Rangers in the Skyzord above planet Earth. Outside the zord, the mortally wounded Xeno mothership continued to drop from high orbit over the planet and threaten a cataclysmic event. There wasn't much time before it would start picking up momentum and reach the Earth's stratosphere and Caldwell knew it. He studied the updated scans that the Rangers had provided of the ruined mothership and tried to form a plan. It had always been his job to help provide his Rangers with the big picture strategy and the support they needed to accomplish their missions. He had years of experience and had proven himself as a master tactician throughout his career... but this was a new challenge entirely. He took one more look at the schematics of the damaged Xeno vessel and looked back up to the screen.

"So, do you think you can help us General? We're running out of time," Bharata asked hopefully. All of the Rangers sat with tense but hopeful expressions on their faces.

The General grimaced and nodded, "It's a long shot... but I think I might have an idea Rangers. When I'm looking at a big complex problem, I always like to try and break it down into smaller simpler components."

"So an Occam's Razor type approach?" Erin suggested.

"I'm thinking of this as more Occam's Laser," Caldwell answered as he displayed updated schematics of the mothership to the team, "We can use the same principle on dealing with a threatening asteroid. We can try and break it apart into enough smaller pieces so that the fragments might cause less overall harm than an extinction level impact."

"Even if that worked, there would still be a whole lot of meteorite strikes and fire raining from the skies," Erin pointed out.

"In lieu of any better options at the moment, it's a chance we'd have to take," Caldwell replied grimly.

"How are we going to blow the mothership up?" Ella asked curiously, "Our zord and the rest of the fleet don't have enough raw firepower to blast the whole ship up in one go."

Caldwell shook his head and provided some new data showing three glowing beacon points on the Xeno ship, "No Ella. Instead of brute force, we're going to use surgical strikes on key sections of the damaged superstructure. Your zord will fly near and use its sensors to help the cruisers target those points with their ion cannons. If you can destroy those sections of the vessel, it might cause the mothership to break apart into manageable pieces."

Jake crossed his arms, "What do we do with three huge ship pieces when they start burning up on re-entry? How do we keep them from drifting away and hitting some population center?"

Caldwell cleared his throat, "We'll have the cruisers control their trajectory with tractor beams and direct them into the oceans. If it's done in a coordinated way, it just might work."

Erik gave a nervous chuckle and clapped his hands together, "Right then... so we're going to take a page out of Bruce Willis's playbook. Let's just be glad we're not flying dynamite into an asteroid here."

Martin nodded grimly and took the steering column of the zord, "Wish us luck General. We'll relay the plan to Captain Lau and the rest of the fleet. Rangers, strap in and take your stations. The people of Earth are counting on us here."

* * *

After ending the transmission with Caldwell, the Rangers quickly reviewed the new plan with Miranda Lau and the other ship captains. She tightened her features and let go of a deep breath, "All right Rangers. It sounds risky, but we can do it. What we need is for you to fly your zord as close as you can to each point and allow the cruisers to lock on to the sections with their beams. We'll begin maneuvering and getting into place for the attack. Stand by."

The ruined mothership continued sinking lower and lower into Earth's orbit as the frigates steered clear and let the three Terran cruisers get into positions to triangulate their fire. As Bharata locked on to the first point with the zord's sensors, Martin took a deep breath and flew their ship into close range in order to assist their allies' targeting systems. "Well gang... here goes nothing."

The Sky zord flew near a mangled section of the mothership that showed deep gaping tears in the hull along with broken metal beams supporting the frame of the superstructure. Captain Lau watched as the cruiser _Columbia_ readied its weapons and moved first, "Remember, maintain a sustained ion beam on your points. Keep your internal power systems in check and prepare to switch to tractor beams when necessary."

The captain of the _Columbia_ radioed back, "Understood _Trafalgar_. Commencing fire now."

The Nova Rangers held their course and watched as a powerful bluish white beam of ionized energy burst from the _Columbia_ and struck its target dead center. The searing energy beam was sustained and began to carefully cut through the weakened hull of the mothership.

"So far so good," Jake murmured nervously as the Rangers flew their zord across to the other side of the mothership to take up their second position.

Just like at the first point, the cruiser _Odyssey_ locked on to its target and fired its own beam which began to carve into the starboard bow of the colossal alien vessel. The zord changed course again and took up its final position above the mothership in a section which had suffered heavy structural damage and had hull plates hanging off. Erin gripped her seat tightly, "I can't tell... is it working?"

Erik reached for his radio and radioed the last cruiser, "All right _Trafalgar_ , we're in position. You are clear to fire."

"Acknowledged Rangers," Captain Lau said as her ship moved into position and charged its weapons. She turned to her bridge officers, "Target the point that the Rangers have locked on to. Fire ion cannons. Full power!"

The _Trafalgar_ fired its weapons and its third beam joined that of its sister ships while the small convoy continued to fall lower and lower from the Earth's orbit. Ella watched as the horizon began to change outside and get wider, "We're running out of time! We're going to be reaching the reentry point soon!"

The Rangers continued to keep their eyes glued on the falling mothership and the beams ripping into it before giving a startled gasp. The beams let up as large explosions ripped through the alien vessel and blossomed from the target points. In mere moments, the superstructure of the mothership tore apart violently as the stresses and damage ripped the massive vessel into four pieces.

The six friends gave a quick cheer at the sight and witnessed the three cruisers each snare a section of the ship with their tractor beams. They just had to change its course enough to have those sections fall safely into the oceans. The only problem now was the last section of the ship. No one had expected that it would break into four pieces instead. Erik took several deep breaths, "Oh crap! There's one last section left! What are we going to do?"

Erin cut in quickly as she looked at a console, "Captain, we'll be reentering the Earth's atmosphere in approximately sixty seconds. If that last piece gets by, it still looks like it could blow up some country the Eastern Mediterranean... maybe Greece? Turkey? Egypt?"

The Red Ranger narrowed his eyes and adjusted his course into an aggressive pursuit angle, "We can't let that happen! We need to do whatever it takes to shoot down that last section of the ship. What do you all say?"

Bharata took a deep breath, "If reentry doesn't kill us in this zord, blowing that thing out of the skies might."

"Then it's settled," Jake said encouraging everyone, "We stop that projectile or die trying."

The others nodded in solemn agreement before Martin throttled forward, "Okay. Bara, you throw every missile we have at that thing. Jake keep firing our guns and don't stop for anything. The rest of you make sure all power is going to our weapons and shields."

The six went into action as the last section of the mothership began to ignite at the edges of the Earth's atmosphere. The zord fired a barrage of missiles before they could burn up and poured a steady stream of blaster fire into the falling projectile. Captain Lau was already sending one last call before the interference from reentry kicked in, "Rangers! What are you doing? You can't go after that last section alone! Are you crazy?"

"It's all part of the job," Erik responded as he directed all the power he could to the forward deflectors. The Sky zord began to rattle and shake as it entered the upper atmosphere. As the heat shields went up, bright flares and streaks of fire began to engulf the falling zord as it started to burn as well. From where the Rangers sat, the remaining section of the mothership erupted into flames and continued to streak like a giant blazing fireball in the heavens followed by a smaller one close behind.

The zord kept firing its blaster cannons even though Jake found their weapons were running out of power. As they continued to rattle and shake violently, Martin gritted his teeth and fought to keep the flying zord steadied and level, all the while dodging flaming debris which sheared off from the blasters and atmospheric reentry. Despite the zord's sturdiness and shielding, reentry was taking a heavy toll on its defenses as it was never designed for such extreme stresses. The flight cabin was beginning to grow uncomfortably warm and warning sensors began to blare. Erin swallowed hard, "Captain? We've got a few secondary systems on the verge of overheating and failing. Minor damage to the outer hull and flight controls... and our shields are running in the red."

"Come on... hold together just a little further," Martin mumbled in dread as the zord was violently buffeted again by some more debris and turbulence.

The two entities continued falling from the skies like two blazing stars and caught the eyes of numerous people in the world who looked up to witness the spectacle. As the zord flared brighter with flames, the six gave a desperate yell while they expended the rest of their primary power and fired their remaining blaster cannons in a final all out attack against the deadly comet in front of them. The shots struck home and the blazing remains of the mothership wavered a moment before breaking apart into a colossal cloud of fire and wreckage. The falling zord was caught up in the colossal plume of the mothership's fiery death blossom and it was swallowed up while long blazing streaks of fire and light lit up the heavens. Thick tails of smoke and falling debris hung in the skies as spectators on the ground of the planet witnessed a truly surreal sight.

Up above, the ships of the UNAF fleet tried desperately to radio the Rangers or pierce through the cloud of fire and interference for some sensor readings. Unfortunately, they were coming up empty handed. Even in Atlantis Base, General Caldwell watched a video feed of the events and sat in stunned shock with Lucy, Julian, and hundreds of other people stationed at the base. A mixed wave of relief, horror, and shock hung in the air as all the people who had watched the spectacle fell deathly silent. For a moment, it was like the entire world had paused to hold their collective breaths, fearful of the Xeno comet striking the planet or what would happen to the Rangers. Right now, there was too much smoke, fire, and radio interference to tell. All the people knew though that the falling comet had been destroyed and that population centers on the ground were spared.

Long minutes passed and Caldwell felt his heart sink while Lucy and Julian held each other's hands for mutual support. Like Caldwell, they felt their hearts grow heavy, unwilling to accept the fact that their Nova Rangers might have perished in their last operation.

As the smoke and clouds began to clear, a faint radar return reappeared on sensors. A crackling radio transmission came through over a damaged comm link, "Atlantis Base, this is Nova 1... target has been eliminated. Mission accomplished."

As the visual returns came back, people could see the scorched heavily damaged hull of the Sky zord emerge from the fiery maelstrom in the skies. Caldwell almost dropped his datapad while base personnel broke out into ecstatic cheers. Julian gave a giddy smile and laughed aloud but not before steadying Lucy as she nearly lost her balance and fainted to the ground.

* * *

Some time later, the renewing light of the early morning sun glistened over the waters of the Atlantic Ocean as the Nova Rangers and their flying zord limped back across the clear skies toward their home. They had expended all their weapons and powers. They had pushed their bodies and their minds to breaking point and nothing could have refleted that more than the half-destroyed zord they were riding on. Faint plumes of smoke trailed from the zord as it began to descend and take an approach angle toward the equally battered Atlantis Base. One of the base's air traffic controllers who was perched in a small secondary tower kept her eyes on the monitors while she radioed in relief, "Nova 1, this is Homestead Tower, please say your state."

Martin's voice crackled back over the damaged comm, "Atlantis Base, we are requesting immediate clearance for emergency landing. We're coming hot."

The controller smiled and nodded, "Acknowledged Captain. You are cleared for landing on runway 3... and Rangers? Welcome home."

The flying zord angled in and descended lower in the skies aiming for one of the few remaining runways that hadn't been destroyed in the prior Xeno attack. It wobbled in the air for a moment before it steadied its wings and reduced its engine power. As it cruised low over the runway, the battered zord extended its landing gear and touched down roughly on the airstrip. It jostled around a bit before the brakes fully kicked in and left a faint trail of smoke behind until it finally came to a stop.

By then, several emergency vehicles drove up to the airstrip while crowds of jubilant base personnel hurried over to gather around and welcome their Rangers back. A few fire crews stood by alongside some of the base's medics while a platoon of marines came out to maintain order in the gathering crowd. In the light of the morning sun and the faint haze of smoke, the main hatch of the zord opened and each of the Rangers came staggering out into the cool autumn air. They were all dirty bruised, and exhausted, but relieved to be home. For them, it hadn't quite set in that the war was over and Xeno Machina threat had been eliminated for good. Right now, they stumbled into the light as if lost in a surreal waking dream.

Bharata led the way out followed by Erin and Jake leaning on each other gently for support. As the applause and cheers from the crowd grew louder, Erik and Ella came next, hand in hand giving tired waves to some of their other friends that they recognized nearby. The last person to emerge from the hatch was Martin who staggered out and raised a hand to briefly shield his eyes from the morning sun's glare.

From the crowd, several people began to part ways as a familiar woman's voice was heard. "Let me through! Please!"

The Rangers turned to see Lucy Beckett push through the rest of the spectators and a pair of marines. She gave an overjoyed look and rushed over toward the Rangers making a beeline for Martin first. She threw her arms around her friend's neck and engulfed him in a tearful hug, "You came back... I knew you could do it!"

He put his arms around her and gently kissed the side of her head. He exchanged an exhausted smile with his teammates and nodded quietly, "I promised I would... the nightmare is finally over."

Moments later, General Caldwell made his way over with Julian and smiled as the younger engineer took a moment to reunite with his friends. Erik noticed the general waiting and he cleared his throat to try and whip the younger Rangers back into some semblance of order but Caldwell waved him off.

"It's all right Erik. I didn't come with anything to say at the moment. Right now, there's nothing to say... but only one thing I can do."

General Caldwell stood at attention and slowly raised a salute of respect to all the Nova Rangers who had just saved planet Earth. The Rangers paused a moment to straighten up and return the salute before turning to face the crowd of onlookers. The six friends exchanged silent smiles with each other and nodded before Martin stepped forward first. He put an arm around Lucy and raised his other arm to the skies making a victorious fist. The people of Atlantis Base and the Nova Rangers all replied by erupting into deafening cheers. The conflict was finally over and the jubilant cheers from the people echoed across the planet. Peace had finally returned and a new day had finally come.

* * *

 **A/N:**  
 **Hey readers, thanks for being so patient here. I'll be closing this series out with the epilogue in one more update, hopefully within a day to two. Stand by and again, thank you all so much for making it this far. It's been a hell of a ride. :)**


	43. Epilogue: To the Stars

**Epilogue:  
**

General Marcus Caldwell sat with a serene smile watching as the parade continued on down the streets of New York City and passed the headquarters of the United Nations. Colorful ticker tape in six colors rained from the roofs of buildings as the people of Earth celebrated the anniversary of the end to the Xeno Machina war and the final Terran victory over their alien invaders. Amid the chilly autumn air, colorful floats, marching bands, civic organizations, and local officials all made appearances along with smartly dressed servicemen and women in the UNAF forces. Both veterans and active duty personnel wore their best royal blue dress uniforms while marching together to the cheers of the crowd.

At the head of the parade were six men and women in military uniforms marching together and gracing the people with smiles and waves while six flag bearers marched behind them holding the banners of six countries in unison: the United States, Germany, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, and the United Kingdom. As Caldwell sat in one of the press boxes and watched the jubilant parade continue on, the BBC News reporter Nigel Moseby turned to him to continue their interview, "General Marcus Caldwell, you are one of the heroes and instrumental figures during the great war against the aliens and..."

"Oh no. I'm no hero," Caldwell smiled gently as he shook his head and pointed to the military people in the parade, "The Nova Rangers and the men and women of the UNAF are the real heroes. I just helped out from time to time."

"Right then," Nigel said changing gears, "Speaking of heroes, perhaps you could shed some light on the heroes in our midst today? I understand there have been some changes in the UNAF and the original unit called Nova Squad has undergone some as well."

Caldwell nodded and gave a thoughtful look before beginning to speak again:

"Like most of the other Rangers, Martin Sterling left active duty in the military and went into the reserves to pursue a new career while enjoying a peaceful civilian life. After retroactively being promoted to the rank of Major, he came back to his home city of Chicago and got involved in some volunteer work to help with the rebuilding effort for a few months. Afterward, he took up a job with NASA and worked to help rebuild the aeronautics program along with training new pilots for the spacecrafts being built. Dr. Lucy Beckett also accompanied him by taking up an engineering job with NASA and working in another department. She worked tirelessly with adapting Adventi technology until she eventually made an initial breakthrough in warp drive technology which earned her a Nobel Prize. In time, she and Martin eventually started an official relationship and after a few happy years together, they are now engaged to be married.

Erik Dobermann Jr. returned to his hometown in Munich, Germany to be reunited with his little daughter Sarah and his other family members. Now that he didn't need to be on full time active duty in the military, he decided to change career paths and do something that would allow him to be around his daughter more while still putting his medical training to use. He took up some classes for certifications and is now working as a Registered Nurse in a local hospital. Of course, being a big intimidating ex-soldier, no one dared make fun of his job title and he made sure to keep any egotistical doctors from pushing around the female nurses on staff too. Not surprisingly, the nurses loved him and so did the patients citing his good humor and cheerful personality. Most of all, Sarah was happiest that she got to see her beloved Papa almost every day.

Once the war was over, Bharata Timothy came home to Jakarta, Indonesia and went to see his old mentor Basuki Surya again. After a happy reunion, Bharata busied himself by helping his mentor teach martial arts classes to all the younger children and students in the district. With news that the famous Green Nova Ranger was giving lessons, enrollment immediately tripled and students came from far and wide to listen to his stories as he passed on his own teacher's techniques and wisdom. When he wasn't busy mentoring students of his own, Bharata reunited with his old childhood friend Anisa and spent his time with her. Others have speculated that they might have been carrying on a romantic relationship, but the two remained fairly private about it and that's they way they've preferred to keep it.

After spending some time with her family back in Dublin, Ireland Erin Reilly went on to become very active in the United Nations government as an ambassador and diplomat. With the help of the alien Taldyr, she took up the cause of advocating for peace between the humans and the resettled clones after the war, hoping that she could encourage more integration and understanding. Using her talents with multiple languages, she helped to make great strides forward in creating lines of communication and diplomacy between the two groups. While her civilian job still kept her busy, she still made sure to budget enough time for her boyfriend Julian Wilson who had taken up a new post as Chief Engineer of Atlantis Base.

Ella Catalano returned home to Italy and pursued her goals of becoming a better cook. Under the watchful eye of her aunt in Rome, she improved her skills and became a talented baker and pastry chef, opening up her own little business in her home city of Milan. From what I hear, her bakery is delicious and her business is a big hit among the locals. She also continued her happy relationship with Erik and the two still visit each other regularly. While they aren't exactly ready to consider settling down quite yet either, the good news is Ella has Sarah's blessing if she ever wanted to become a new step-mother.

Jacob Massey took a short leave and returned to his home in Bristol, England to spend time with his family. Afterward, he continued to serve in the British Army and eventually earned a promotion becoming a commissioned officer. After being elevated to the rank of a full fledged Lieutenant, he volunteered to become more of an administrative officer and headed a program to give back and help needy servicemen who suffered as a result of the war. Through the social program, he worked to help provide aid for fellow soldiers with PTSD, depression, and other harmful psychological conditions that threatened to prevent them from transitioning back to living healthy productive lives. The program has been a great success in helping many servicepeople and Jake has also become well loved among the soldiers for it. To his surprise, Lt. Clarissa Lewis had also volunteered to help him with the program and the two are never far apart from one another both on or off duty.

Despite going off to pursue their own civilian lives, the Nova Rangers still remain close and communicate with each other regularly. They return to Atlantis Base a few times each month for some drills and team meetings. With the threat of the alien invaders having been eliminated, the gatherings of the Rangers invariably become more like social calls followed by evenings out in the rebuilt West End for catching up. While I miss having them around as often, it's always a joy to see them and learn how they've been doing."

"Thank you for the update General," Nigel said as he began to wrap up his interview, "I suppose that leaves only one more thing. Where do we go from here?"

Caldwell smiled and shrugged, "To be honest? I don't know. For an old gray bird like myself, there's no war left to fight and I couldn't be happier for it. But for those Rangers and all the other young people out there? The sky's the limit... maybe beyond that. We've fought to preserve our planet and earn our little place in the cosmos, but maybe... just maybe we could be more. Maybe we could follow the example of the Adventi and seize greatness for ourselves, the kind that they couldn't. There's still so much out there in the universe to explore and learn from. It's my hope that we as humanity can remain together with common purpose as we did during this war and take the next great leap... to peacefully explore a new frontier, and to take our rightful place among the stars."

The End


	44. Authors Acknowledgments: Debriefing

**Authors Acknowledgments:  
**

Thank you again to everyone and anyone who's made it all the way through this series. As with any of my long running stories, I truly appreciate the patience and support of all those who have followed along, left reviews, and provided insight or ideas. Even to those silent readers out there, thank you for tuning in as well. I also want to give a special acknowledgment to those who helped provide such great characters and made the main cast special: **_ChibiDawn23_** (Erik Dobermann Jr.) **_fantastic rhapsody_** (Bharata Timothy) **_SA June_** (Erin Reilly) _**Mistycharming** _ (Ella Catalano) and last but certainly not least _**Stormasius** _ (Jake Massey) I can't thank you enough for the excellent OC's and I can only hope I did them justice.

This has been a special project because it's been my longest most ambitious work yet. I had never had much experience writing science fiction before and this was a chance to experiment with a darker more realistic setting while touching on some more mature themes relating to subjects like war, death, eugenics, xenophobia, and even real world politics. If Power Rangers RPM could do a relatively good job with some of those darker sci-fi elements, then there's no reason Nova Squadron couldn't do the same, especially with a military theme that's rarely seen in other Power Rangers fiction. Part of the reason I also wrote this was to directly challenge Neo Saban and everything bad that the franchise is becoming. At its core, PR is supposed to be uplifting, heroic, and fun but there's no reason it can't be taken seriously either. It can and should tackle dark serious subjects sometimes, be thought provoking, have real character conflict and drama and most importantly not talk down to its own audience.

The important things I wanted to get across here were the bonds of friendship and humanity between the Rangers: a multinational team of people with very different beliefs and personalities who still came together for a common cause and grew to become the best of friends. At its core, isn't that what PR is all about? Finally, I wanted to give some credit to all the other media that helped to influence and inspire this story. Among the major ones: Stargate SG1 and Atlantis, Exo-Squad, Robotech, Star Wars, Star Trek, PR: RPM, Warhammer 40K, and Independence Day.

Looking ahead, I'll be going back to focus on my other series Advent Horizon which is set in my main OC "Mythic" universe. As always, feel free to sound off if you have any other questions or comments about this series here. Thanks again and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it!

Company, dismissed.


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